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ARMENIA: 



ITS PRESENT CRISIS AND 
PAST HISTORY. 



H. ALLEN TUPPER, Jr., D. D. 



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JOHN MURPHY & COMPANY, 
PUBLISHERS, 

BALTIMORE; NEW YORK ; 

No. 44 W. Baltimore St. No. 70 Fifth Avenue. 

1895. 



Copyright, 1896, by H. Allen Tupper, Je. 



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TO 

HENRY ALLEN TUPPER, D. D., 

THE CULTURED SCHOLAR, THE POLISHED GENTLEMAN, 
THE IDEAL CHRISTIAN, 

THIS LITTLE CONTRIBUTION 
TO A GREAT CAUSE IS, WITH FILIAL LOVE, 



PREFACE. 



WHILE in Cairo last April, during my trip around 
the world, I received a letter from the editor of 
one of our American daily papers, requesting me to go 
into Armenia, and write from the ground, for his jour- 
nal, an account of the condition of affairs that existed 
among this persecuted people, as contradictory reports 
had been published in America. This little work, that 
I now offer to the public, is the result of my observations 
and experiences during a two months' stay in the Otto- 
man Empire. I am indebted to a number of persons 
for many of the facts contained in this volume ; but as, 
in every case, information was given me with the distinct 
understanding that the names of my informants should 
not be used, I am prevented from giving due credit to 
these heroic men and women, whose noble work for the 
suffering Armenians would be greatly hindered if word 
reached the Turkish officials that they were expressing 
through the American press their knowledge of the 
state of affairs in Armenia. In the preparation of the 
historical portion of the book, I was fortunate in having 
the aid of an Armenian professor of Armenian history 
in Constantinople. His translations from the original 
enable me to present for the first time in English certain 
important data bearing on the national life of a people 

5 



b PEEFACE. 

whose history, so singularly checkered with glory and 
gloom, must elicit the interest and sympathy of the 
ciyilized world. May these pages hasten the dawning 
of that mormng when the dark shadows on the pathway 
of the Armenians will be lifted and the clouds in her 
sky be rifted ; and when the sun of a new day will 
bring life, light and liberty where now reign death, 
darkn^s and despair. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

PRESENT CRISIS. 

PAGE. 

The City of the Sultan 13 

Its }^ame and History 14 

Life and Scenes 15 

The Town of Scutari ,-. 15 

The Mosque of 5t. Sophia 16 

Curious Sepulchral Chapels 17 

The Bazars and their Crowds 18 

The Agony of the Armenians 20 

The Carnage of Shepik 22 

Eachel weeping for her Children 23 

Heart-rending Sights 25 

Cruelty of Kurds and Soldiers 26 

Tortured for Taxes. 28 

Turkish Tyranny 29 

Official Rottenness 30 

Books and Press Censorship 31 

Administrative System 32 

Oppressive Taxation 32 

Justice with a Vengeance ' 33 

The Massacre at Oorfa 35 

The Victims at Biredjik 37 

Islam or the Sword 38 

Lady Teachers Captured 38 

Distress and work of Eelief.. 39 

A Bit of History 41 

7 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Their Keligion and Clergy 42 

Culture and Education 43 

Traders and Farmers 43 

Home and Family 44 

An Unmixed Eace 45 

Appalling Destitution 46 

Grinding Oppression 47 

Kurdish Bobbers 48 

Pillage and Murder 49 

A Piteous Account 50 

The Outbreak at Severek 52 

Moslem Sympathy. 53 

Begging Widows 54 

The First Mohammedan Massacre..... 54 

Broken Treaties....... 55 

TheTreaty of Paris,... J.%.S".!b 56 

The Treaty of Berlin of 1878 .^ 57 

The Cyprus Treaty 59 

The Eeign of Terror under these Treaties 59 

Belief for Armenians 61 

Aid to Befugees 62 

Industrial Help 63 

Distribution of Money and Clothing 63 

Appeal for Contributions 65 

Danger of Epidemics 66 

A Hopeless Condition 67 

AtStamboul 69 

Atrocities at Zile 69 

The Savage Turk 71 

Piles of the Murdered 73 

Official Estimates 74 

Turkish Statistics for Seven Districts 75 

The Situation at Gurun 76 

Distribution Prohibited 77 

Attitude of the Powers 80 

The Work of Belief 81 

A Colonization Scheme , 83 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE. 

Do they Wish to Emigrate? 83 

Will the Sultan allow it? 84 

Would it be Practicable? 85 

Going to Cyprus 87 

Destitution Increasing 87 ^ 

American Missions 89 

Letters from Eelief Corps 90 

The General Distress =....... 92 

Renewed Massacres 93 - 

Utter Desolation 95 ,. 

Foreign Mission Work 96 

American Institutions., -, 97 

Eobert College 98 

Light for Asia... 99 

No Conversions Possible 100 

Civilizing Influences 100 

A Recapitulation , « 102 

In regard to Place,. 102 / 

In regard to Time 103 i^ 

The Nationality of the Victims 104 j^ 

The Method of Killing and Pillaging 105 ^ 

Soldiers Participate 106 ^ 

Blood and Booty Estimates 107 > 

The Motive of the Turks 108 - 

Christendom's Apathy 109 v 

Moslem Mendacity 110 ^" 

No Provocation Given Ill * 

The Spirit of Islamism ^ 112 *^' 

Governmental Connivance • 112 "-" 

Duration of Massacres 113 " 

Turkish Toleration 114 ^ 

Religious Contention 115 ^^ 

The Latest Acts of the Great Assassin and his Followers... 116 ^^ 

An Intelligent Armenian Refugee in America interviewed.. 127 



10 CONTENTS. 



PA.RT II. 

PAST HISTORY. 

PAGE. 

Primitive History 139 

The Kingdom of Arsacid Dynasty 142 

I. — The Eeorganization of the Government 143 

II. — The Wars of Tigranes IT, and Mithridates against 

the Romans 144 

III. — Political Revolution in Persia and its Consequences 

in Armenia... , 146 

IV. — Christianity as the National Religion of the Ar- 
menians 1 47 

V. — The Golden Age of Armenian Literature 148 

Persian Dominion (433-640) 151 

Arabian Dominion of Armenia (649-885) , 156 

Kingdom of Pagratidae (885-1045) 158 

Rupenian Kingdom (108Cpi375) 164 

Armenians in Turkey 176 

Zeitoun 179 






I. 

PRESENT CRISIS 



ARMENIA. 



I. 

PRESENT CRISIS 



The City of the Sultan. 

CONSTANTINOPLE, or Stamboul, the City 
of the Sultan, is located on the western 
shore of the Thracian Bosphorus, in a situation 
equally remarkable for beauty and security. 

A gently declining promontory, secured by narrow 
seas, at the southeast corner of Europe, stretches out 
to meet the continent of Asia, from which it is sepa- 
rated by so narrow a strait, the Bosphorus, that in 
fifteen minutes, you can row from one continent to 
another. This channel, running for about twenty 
miles from the Black Sea, looks like a stately river, 
until it sweeps by the angle of Constantinople, and 
enters the Sea of Marmora, but just before it is lost 
in that sea, it makes a deep elbow between the tri- 

13 



14 ARMENIA. 

angle of Constantinople proper, and its foreign 
suburbs of Galata and Pera, thus forming the port 
of the Golden Horn. 

Its Name and Histor^y. 

At this corner of Thrace, the Megarian leader 
Byzas planted the City of Byzantium, about 660 
B. C. ' It was taken by the Romans, A. D. 73, and 
here Constantine fixed the Eastern seat of the Roman 
Empire, in 328-30, calling it Constaotinopolis, the 
City of Constantine, of which the Orientals make 
Stamboul, from the Greek, es tan polis, or "the 
city.'^ " Room,'' or Rome, is also a popular name 
for it to this day, and the province in which it stands, 
is Roumeli, which name appears in Roumania. 

Godfrey de Bouillon was here in the first crusade, 
1096-97, in the reign of Alexius,. Commenus. It 
was taken by the Venetians and Franks, led by 
"Blind old Dandolo," and held till 1261, during 
which period the Greek Emperors reigned at Nicaea 
and Trebizond. Their rule terminated with its 
capture by the Turks in 1453 under Mahomet II 
after fifty-three days siege. 

Stamboul, like its prototype, is said to have been 
built on seven hills, which appear to rise one above 
another in beautiful succession, and was thirteen 
miles in circumference. It is of great interest to 
study the many decaying and neglected remains of 
Roman and medieval times which it contains. 



AEMENIA. 15 

Life and Scenes. 

The ridge of the first hill is occupied by the Serag- 
lio^ behind which, a little on the reverse of the hill, 
the imposing dome of the Santa Sophia can be seen. 
This was the site of the first city of Byzantium. 

Four of the hills are covered with magnificent 
mosques, whose domes are strikingly bold and lofty. 
The city proper, occupying the triangle between the 
Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmora, is partly 
surrounded by the remains of decaying walls, which 
are fast disappearing. 

Galata, founded by the Genoese, in 1216, on the 
north side of the Golden Horn, is joined to the 
main city by an iron bridge, and is the chief busi- 
ness quarter for European merchants, who, strangely 
enough, go under the general name of Franks. 

A steep street leads up to Pera, which stretches 
two miles along a hill, and is the residence of the 
diplomatic corps from the different Nations of Europe, 
where each has a fine palace. The tremendous 
conflagration of 1870, swept away a great part of 
Pera, destroying 6,000 houses, including the British 
Embassy. 

The Town of Scutari. 

Scutari is a mile and half across the Bosphorus 
from Galata, and is mostly inhabited by Turks, 
Greeks and Armenians. Here are located the Sul- 
tan Selim Barracks, used as the English military 
hospital, during the Crimean war, and which are 



16 ARMENIA. 

especially noted as the scenes of Miss Nightingale's 
heroic and memorable labors. In the adjacent ceme- 
tery are buried 8^000 English soldiers^ victims of 
that terrible struggle. 

From the hill of Bulgarin, overlooking the column 
of Marochetti in the military cemetery^ a splendid 
panorama of Constantinople is had, taking in the 
Black Sea, Therapia and Buyukdere, on the Bos- 
phorus, the castles of Europe and Asia near the 
water, and the Golden Horn. On this hill, where 
ancient Chrysopolis was located, Constantine defeated 
his enemy and rival, Licinus, A. D. 325, and not 
far from this place of victory, the great conqueror 
was conquered by his last enemy. 

_ On entering the city, the visitor is first attracted 
by the wilderness of mosques and minarets. Within 
the walls there are 16 imperial mosques, 150 ordinary 
ones, and 200 mesjids, the last of which are only 
distinguished as being places of worship, by having 
little minarets or towers contiguous to them. 

The llosque of St Sophia, 

I shall speak of only one of these mosques, which 
is the most wonderful building of its kind in the 
world. St. Sophia was dedicated, A. D. 360, to 
Agia Sophia, '^Holy wisdom,'^ by Constantine II, 
the son of Constantine the Great, and was rebuilt 
by Justinian, 532-48, in the shape of a Greek cross. 

Among the numerous pillars brought from all 
parts of the Empire are some from Delos and 



ARMENIA. 17 

Baalbek ; six of green jasper from the Temple of 
Diana at Ephesus, and eight of porphyry, which 
had been placed by Aurelian in the Temple of 
the Sun at Rome, and were removed here by 
Constantine. 

It is an immense marble basilica, 270 by 245 feet, 
with sixteen bronze gates and a stupendous dome, 
115 feet across, adorned with mosaic work. It is 
illuminated with globes of crystal and lamps of 
colored glass at the Ramadan, and ornamented with 
ostrich eggs and flags. 

On Fridays you can count the worshippers by 
the thousands, and from the great galleries you are 
allowed to watch the congregation of believers at 
prayers, with their faces turned towards Mecca. 

Every mosque has, in general, a large area in 
front, surrounded by a lofty colonnade of marble, 
with gates of wrought brass, and in the centre, a 
fountain of polished marble. 

Curious Sepulchral Chapels. 

Adjoining each is the sepulchral chapel of its 
founder. 

Some of these tombs, in which the Sultans, Vi- 
ziers, and other personages repose, are exceedingly 
handsome, others in their workmanship defy all 
laws of art, and display a decided genius on the part 
of the builders, for making what is supposed to be 
very solemn, exceedingly laughable. 
2 



18 ARMENIA. 

Looking through the grated windows, you see 
the coffins, surmounted by shawls and turbans, and 
slightly elevated from the floor, with lamps continu- 
ally burning, and immense wax torches, which are 
lighted on particular occasions. 

The slender and graceful minarets form one of the 
pleasing features in the architecture of Constanti- 
nople, and two, four, or even six of these are con- 
nected with some of the mosques. Near the summit 
there is a little gallery, from which, at the five ap- 
pointed times in the twenty-four hours, the Muezzin 
calls the Mohammedan to prayer. 

A fountain, with its marble font, elaborate ara- 
besque ornaments, and Chinese-like roof, stands by 
every mosque, for before a Turk prostrates himself 
in prayer, he must perform his ablutions. The sup- 
ply for the many fountains in the city, is brought 
from artificial lakes in the forest, about twelve milfes 
from the city, by means of subterranean aqueducts, 
and hydraulic pyramids, contrived so as to overcome 
the inequalities of the surface. 

The Bazars and thei?- Crowds. 

The bazars, where you see the people acting 
naturally, are much more interesting than the 
mosques. The former consist of lofty cloisters or 
corridors built of stone, and lighted by domes, 
which, during the hot hours of the day, afford 
a pleasant retreat. 



ARMENIA. 19 

The Grand Bazar, called Bezesteen, is a hive of 
small shops walled in with thirty-two gates, and 
here, as nowhere else in Constantinople, or perhaps 
in the world (with the exception of Cairo), can you 
see displayed the brilliant, ever-changing picture of 
Oriental life to such perfection. 

A world in miniature is continually moving to 
and fro. In the bewildering multitude of national- 
ities, you get a glimpse of the Albanian, with 
his tasseled cap, white short skirts, flashing scarf, 
buckskin leggins, and bright rosettes on his toes ; 
the swaggering Turk, looking little like he was 
a member of a corrupt and bankrupt nation, 
with his turban and flowing robes, or pufling a 
cigarette under a jockey red fez, and over ill- 
fitting European vest and trousers ; comical-look- 
ing women, waddling along in formless sacks for 
dresses, their faces hidden, lest some one should 
be stricken by their bashful loveliness ; and an 
army of beggars, soldiers, priests, patriarchs — each 
one a drop, in the rushing, rolling, rumbling stream 
of humanity. 

It matters little how interesting may be the pala- 
tial residences and busy streets of a great city, when 
the brain is tired reflecting upon the methods and 
manners of man, it is joyful and restful to hie aw^ay 
from these scenes and find repose in some rural place, 
at the foot of a noble mountain, or by the side of a 
leaping, laughing, limpid stream, or on the banks of 
a beautiful bay. 



20 ARMENIA. 

Taking a steamer across the Bosphorus (so called 
after lo, who swam over it in the shape of a heifer), 
you soon reach a pretty spot beyond a little village 
on the Asiatic side at the bend of the water. Here 
you have at once the mountain, the brooklet, and 
the bay. From the summit of the Giant's Hill, 
there is a striking view of the shores of several seas, 
and the nearly united lands of two continents. 

As this picturesque panorama spread before him, 
the poetic soul of Byron went forth in the exclama- 
tion : "'Tis a grand sight, from off the Giant's Grave, 
to watch the progress of those rolling seas, between 
the Bosphorus as they lash and lave Europe and 
Asia." 

The Agony of the Armenians. 

I visited several cities and towns in different parts 
of Asia Minor, seeking to gather from the most 
reliable sources, the exact facts in reference to the 
massacres of the Armenians, and the present con- 
dition of the thousands who were plundered and 
left by the Kurds and Turkish soldiers, without 
homes or food. The worst reports that at first came 
to me, were more than confirmed. 

Although I tried to show prudence and discretion 
in all my movements, I learned through a European 
who has lived in Constantinople for years, that 
Turkish spies were becoming suspicious of my 
activity in certain directions, and I was advised by 
no means to have the interview with the Armenian 



AEMENIA. 21 

Patriarch, that had been arranged for one afternoon. 
My friend sent me this message : *' I am quite sure 
if you go to the patriarch's house this afternoon, you 
will have several of these spies watching you, and this 
act of yours will give them occasion to be more watch- 
ful, and the result will be, that your papers will be 
examined, and you may be greatly inconvenienced/' 

I exceedingly regretted this, for the head of the 
Armenian Church had expressed a willingness to 
communicate fully on the subject of the calamity 
that has befallen his people, an interpreter had been 
spoken for, and I hoped to secure from this venerable 
father, information that would prove of much interest 
to my readers. 

Nevertheless, I came into possession of a great deal 
of trustworthy data, through the testimony of some 
who have suffered in the plundered towns of the 
interior, several of the missionaries who have visited 
these places, the agent of the Evangelical Alliance 
from England, who is distributing funds among the 
suffering Armenians, and the United States Consul 
at Constantinople. 

The following reports contain the latest and most 
reliable news from villages and districts which have 
not received my attention in former communications, 
and whose fearful fate has not been made known 
hitherto through the American Press. Every day, 
from different parts of the devastated region, I re- 
ceived additional facts, which add to the horrors of 
the situation. The following is a translation of an 



22 AEMENIA. 

Armenian letter from Shepik, a village near Harpoot, 
Turkey : 

" The plundering Company that attacked us, was 
led by Sard Chechecklee Kours Oghlou, who, with 
400 armed followers came to the village and fired 
upon it until noon. Afterward, some of the leading 
men of the village went to understand what was 
their purpose in plundering us. After consultation, 
a hundred Turkish pounds were paid as a ransom, 
but Jiey would not go. ' You must give us your 
watches also/ they said. "We gave them up, but 
still they would not go. ' You must give us your 
weapons as well.^ We gave these, but still they 
would not go. ^ We are going to take the grain, the 
oxen and the cattle.^ They took them, and were still 
unsatisfied. ' We are going to hunt through your 
houses, and take whatever pleases us.' This they 
did, and went off with all the valuable things." 

The Carnage at Shepik. 

" When day became night, we thought the danger 
had passed, and that we were safe, but in vain. 
The next morning the Turks from the surrounding 
villages attacked us and threatened to kill us if we 
did not leave our houses, so we went outside, and 
they entered and plundered. For eight days, they 
burned the houses as they emptied them. Only ten 
or twelve of the poorer houses were not burned, but 
the doors and windows were carried off, and even 



ARMENIA. 23 

the rafters of some were taken away. After this, 
they rushed upon the women and children and took 
off their shoes and clothing. On the eighth day 
as they had finished their work, they came to us 
who were on the banks of the stream. They killed 
Brother Baghdo's son, and Pastor Mel con on the 
other side of the stream, because they would not 
change their religion. It became night. Darkness 
was upon us, but they came with lanterns, and 
selected forty-five of the young men, saying that the 
government wanted them. Knowing what would 
befall them, they asked for an hour's grace. They 
prayed and sang ; they asked forgiveness of each 
other ; they kissed the hands of their parents, and 
parted with the expectation of never again seeing 
each other. Taking them to a desolate place, half 
an hour distant, they were taken apart, two by two, 
and threatened with death if they would not change 
their religion. They all, with one voice, agreed in 
saying boldly, ^ We will not deny our religion. We 
are ready to die for our Saviour's love.' Only five 
succeeded in making their escape, but the remaining 
forty became martyrs for the love of Jesus. My son, 
Samuel, was among the forty-five, but he escaped 
with four others, and hid in a cave for ten or twelve 
days. My youngest son, twenty-two years old, was 
killed." 

Rachel weeping for her Children. 

" How heart-rending was the sight ! A week 
before, we were in our homes, comfortable, having 



24 AEMENIA. 

made every preparation for the winter, having our 
friends about us ; but like Job, ^ we were deprived 
of everything, dwelling-house, furniture, beds, food, 
and clothing. With heads uncovered, with feet bare, 
little clothing upon us, we passed from rock to rock, 
from mountain to mountain, with great wailing and 
lamentation to find our children : ' Rachel weeping 
for her children, and would not be comforted, because 
they were not/ 

"After wandering about several days, and remain- 
ing hungry, we put aside every fear and went to the 
city (Arabkir) for help, but in vain. I forgot to say, 
that when the first attack was made, seven young 
men went to the city to inform the government. 
They were imprisoned and unable to return to us. 
A few days later one of them tried to get away, 
but he was killed by the government. 

" Twice, the government sent us grain for bread, 
but it was only enough to make two and a half loaves 
for each person (about the amount given to a soldier 
for a day's rations), and this was to last us ten or 
twelve days. The wheat was burnt, and mice had 
been at it, so that it was too bitter to eat. 

" Many were at last obliged to go to Egin to try 
to find food, and I am thankful to say, that they 
received us; but with all the villages about them 
plundered, to which shall they render help? 

"All that we have is common property. We have 
returned to our village, and are crowded into the ten 
remaining houses. There are no doors, there are no 



AKMENIA. 25 

windows, there is no bread, there is not even an 
earthen dish in which to cook anything, if we had 
it. We have no money, no beds. We sleep on 
the dry boughs of trees. Many of our number 
become sick, and as many as ten have died from 
cold, hunger and exposure." 

Heart-rending Sights. 

From Erzeroum the following thrilling tale of 
woe has just reached me : This morning, villagers 
from a centre called Terjan came to Erzeroum for aid. 
Their stories were sad indeed. Their very appear- 
ance was an eloquent appeal for charity. They came 
a distance of eighteen hours across two mountain 
ranges deep in snow. 

One man, who represented a village, who, prior 
to the massacre, was comparatively wealthy, who 
could accommodate eighteen or twenty guests at a 
time, and whose house was open to all comers, was 
now covered with rags. Through the holes in his 
thin cotton trousers could be seen his bare legs. You 
could not suggest a more meagre covering, if, instead 
of winter blasts, from which he had suffered for 
months, he had to contend with August heat. 

A leader in another village, dressed somewhat 
better, touched one's sympathy in a different way. He 
was a giant in stature, but was so badly cut to pieces 
by the cruel swords of the soldiers, that both arms 
were crippled. 



26 AEMENIA. 

The villagers, whom these men represented, needed 
everything that a human being can need. No mat- 
tress or bed-covering was left them, and during the 
winter mouths, they have all slept in straw or hay. 
This is the way they have managed for the night. 
First, they throw straw on the floor, and then all 
but one lie down as closely as possible and the one 
on foot covers those who have lain down, with hay, 
and then himself crawls under the hay as best he can. 
Some of the villagers were plundered at intervals, 
for forty days by the Kurds. In the case of one 
village all who escaped the sword, fled to the moun- 
tains, where they remained three weeks, not daring 
to return to their homes. During this time they had 
no clothing but what they happened to have on when 
the raid was made. The weather was still cold. 
Twenty children were born to these villagers upon 
the mountain side, bnt not one of them survived the 
exposure. From these villages, ten girls were kid- 
napped, and not one of them has been allowed to 
return. 

Cruelty of Kurds and Soldiers. 

Turks and Kurds are after virgins. Brides are 
somewhat more exempt from violence, so the villa- 
gers went to work and married all their girls over 
eight years of age, as a means of protection from 
these devilish brutes. In the thirty-two villages 
composing the Terjan group, there is not an unmar- 
ried girl over eight years old, to be found. 



AEMENIA. 27 

Even if the past terrible experiences were all, 
these poor patient people would take up the broken 
thread and begin life again, but they still live under 
the anxiety and terror of daily death. They never 
lie down with the assurance of being unmolested 
till morning, and they never rise with the confidence 
that they will see another night. They dare not go 
from one village to another. 

Their women seldom venture out of doors. They 
are in the saddest bondage. In spite of all their 
devices to protect their w^omen, no man dares to call 
his wife his own, or protect his daughter when the 
unpunished and armed villains come. 

The Kurds and the regular soldiers of his Ma- 
jesty come to a village and settle down in it for a 
few days. They demand whatever they want, and 
it must be forthcoming. Thus, villages which have 
not been plundered in the regular way, are often 
impoverished. 

Some weeks ago, a sum of money sent by the 
Sultan to be distributed among these plundered vil- 
lagers, was carried by mounted soldiers to its desti- 
nation. 'Of this sum, two silver mej idles, (a little 
less than seven shillings) fell to one of these villages. 
It was brought by five mounted soldiers, who, after 
delivering the money to the village elders, settled 
down upon the village, and remained twelve days, 
demanding meanwhile, the best food available for 
themselves and horses. It is estimated, that each 
soldier with his horse, cost the villagers a mejidie a 



28 ARMENIA. 

day, or in all, thirty times more than the money 
brought for the relief of the smitten and plundered 
people. 

Tortured for Taxes. 

In some places the government has compelled the 
Kurdish robbers to return a part of their plunder, 
and then has sent soldiers to collect taxes from the 
wretched villagers. Thus the poor people have been 
compelled to sell the very goods returned to them, 
to pay taxes. In many, many cases this has not 
sufficed, and the wretched villagers have been tor- 
tured. 

Listen to the story of one poor villager, who had 
not a farthing to give and nothing to sell. The 
soldiers passed a chain around the small of this 
man's back in such a way that it would tighten 
when drawn up. The end of the chain was then 
drawn over a beam and the man pulled up, and 
taxes demanded. He protested that he had no 
money and no way of procuring money. The pres- 
sure of the chain was so severe as to cause the man 
agony, but for some time he was subjected to this 
torture, and when at last lowered to the floor, the 
blood streamed from his mouth and nose. 

Other modes of torture are resorted to, to compel 
the villagers to find money for taxes. Modes of 
torture that are so diabolical and indecent that they 
cannot be recounted. As many of these villagers 
as can get away, are crossing the Russian border, 



ARMENIA. 29 

but for family and financial reasons, many cannot 
go. And thus they remain, like frightened sheep 
without a shepherd, momentarily expecting the wolf. 
The way these poor people look into one^s face and 
ask, " What is going to become of us," is enough lo 
melt a heart of stone. The entreaty depicted on 
their countenances, as ihey intently look into your 
eyes, for at least a shadow of a hope of relief, is so 
touching, that one sometimes wishes to run away and 
relieve his feelings in tears. The nervous strain 
caused by listening to the recitals of these poor 
villagers is so intense, that one retires from the 
interview completely exhausted. There is only one 
thing that relieves the strain, and that is the evi- 
dently sincere gratitude of the people for the slightest 
charity. The blessings of God upon those who give 
but a cup of cold water for their relief. In taking 
farewell of a consecrated woman who has personally 
watched the massacres and tortures of these defence- 
less Armenians for months, she exclaimed, "But, my 
dear sir, no language can portray the past and present 
suffering of these wretched people. No hell can be 
more terrible." 

Turkish Tyranny. 

It is impossible for the citizens of free America, 
who have never visited the Ottoman Empire, to 
imagine the corruption of the Turkish government. 
From the most subordinate officer to the Sultan him- 
self, this official rottenness is traceable ; and how the 



30 ARMENIA. 

thing has held together for so long is a wonder of 
wonders. As this terrible state of affairs is sup- 
posed to be kept in secrecy from the outside world, 
and a man's head is at stake if he is caught 
sjpeaking or writing on the subject while in these 
regions, I have found no little difficulty, although 
I have had the aid of a discreet native inter- 
preter, to reach the reliable facts that are now in 
my possession. 

In the shop, on the farm, and within the humble 
family circle, through my assistant, I have inter- 
viewed a number of inhabitants of this cursed land, 
and everywhere, the same sad story of governmental 
injustice, dishonesty and oppression is heard. 

Official Rottenness, 

Here, the seed of patriotism is crushed, if it ever 
existed at all. Here, the young Turk, it matters 
not how noble may be his ambition, in commercial, 
civic, or military life, has no opportunity for its 
expansion. Here the farmer is yearly and system- 
atically robbed by the merciless agents of the govern- 
ment at Constantinople, and here an official premium 
is put on any and every vice, from which the Sultan 
can possibly receive a revenue. 

In the light of these facts, it is not a matter of 
surprise that every influence from without, that has 
a tendency to reveal or improve the condition of the 
country, is indignantly opposed by the government, 



ARMENIA. 31 

and that the basest deception is perpetrated to mislead 
the nations of the civilized world. 

Boohs and Press Censorship. 

No publication is allowed in the country, that is 
not first carefully examined by agents of the Sultan. 
If a book is written, it matters not upon what subject 
it treats, the original manuscript must be sent to 
Constantinople, and is closely read by a committee 
created for the purpose. Every word that is at all 
objectionable, is expunged. The revised manuscript 
is sent back, after a copy is taken. At the author's 
expense, an edition of only two copies of the book 
is first published, one of which is sent on to be 
compared with the copy, which is retained, and if 
there is the least variation, the volume is not allowed 
to see the light of day. Nothing can be published, 
which gives the people information about the true 
government of the land, and no word is printed 
about the doings of other nations, which would have 
a tendency to give rise to a comparison between the 
way of doing things in the Ottoman Empire, and 
elsewhere. When the President of the French 
Republic was assassinated, the order went out from 
the Sultan, that no word which corresponds with 
" assassinate ^' or " murder ^^ should be used in the 
report of the event, but it should be circulated that 
the President died of a lingering disease. I was in 
a S^^rian village, when the news of the murder of 



32 ARMENIA. 

the Shah of Persia reached the place. A Mohamme- 
dan, at the head of a printing establishment, told me 
that the same deception would be perpetrated by the 
press of the country. The Sultan, knowing his own 
unpopularity, is not willing that his people should be 
educated in the art of easily getting rid of a hated 
ruler. 

Administrative System. 

The large cities are ruled by Pashas ; the towns 
have over them. Governors ; and the villages have 
Sheiks. A man receives and holds his appointment 
only because he pays for it more than any one else 
is able or willing to pay. The idea of efl&ciency, 
does not enter into the question at all. 

A few weeks ago, a man living near Damascus, 
found out through a spy, what the governor of the 
place was paying to hold his office. He consulted 
wnth his friends, as to how much he could make out 
of the office, sent a higher offer to the Sultan than 
the acting governor had made, and was immediately 
installed. 

This principle, or rather lack of principle, holds 
in reference to every office under the government. 
Everything is for revenue only. 

Oppressive Taxation, 

The tax collection system, is one of the most 
wretchedly unjust in the world. The whole thing is 



ARMENIA. 33 

farmed out to the highest bidder. The one who gets 
the position of tax collector for a district, mnst neces- 
sarily pay the government an exorbitant price for the 
privilege ; the money is in nearly every case borrowed 
to send in advance to Constantinople, and now, in 
order to re-imburse himself, and make money, the 
collector goes to work on the long-suffering citizens, 
and with the soldiers that are placed at his disposal, 
the most cruel extortion is enacted. 

According to the written law (which is a snare 
and a delusion) he is allowed to collect one-tenth 
of the produce of a farm. On three farms, I was 
shown how eighty per cent, of the whole crop went 
into the pockets of the collectors. 

An old man who owns an olive orchard, told me 
that he gave in a true report of the yield of his 
place, as ten barrels of oil. The legal tax would 
have been one barrel of the stuff, but the collector 
reported the yield of the orchard as eighty barrels 
of oil, taking one-tenth of this, leaving two barrels 
for the owner of the orchard. 

This instance may induce certain ward politicians 
in America to leave their seemingly lucrative busi- 
ness, and apply for a job under the gracious Sultan. 

Justice with a Vengeance. 

To illustrate how justice, so called, is adminis- 
tered, let me give a case in point, the truth of which 
is vouched for by an American, who has lived in this 
3 



34 AEMENIA. 

country for thirty-five years, and who is personally 
acquainted with the characters involved. 

A wealthy man by the name of Aly, made accu- 
sation against his enemy Jacob, and swore in court, 
that he owed him 100,000 francs. For about six- 
pence each, he bribed two witnesses to testify for 
him. The accused was brought before the judge, 
and although he did not owe a cent in the world, 
he confessed judgment, but declared that his accuser 
owed him 200,000 francs, and that he was waiting 
patiently for a settlement. 

Being asked to produce his witnesses, he started 
out to secure them, but Aly requested the judge to 
send a guard along, to prevent him bribing men to 
testify in his behalf. The Chief of Police was sent 
with him. Jacob, after walking about for some 
time, slipped a Turkish pound into the chief's hand; 
the head of the Police took him to his office, where 
two witnesses were bribed for a few pennies ; they 
returned to court, and after secret consultation with 
the judge, and testimony of new-bought witnesses, 
judgment was given in favor of Jacob, who paid the 
100,000 francs, that he didn't owe Aly, and collected 
the 200,000 francs that Aly didn't owe him. This, 
verily, is justice with a vengeance. 

I despair of being able to give any adequate 
impression of the terrible condition of affairs in 
Armenia. One must be on Turkish soil, and hear 
for himself the heart-rending tales of torture and 
torment, to have any just conception of the scenes 



AKMENIA. 35 

that have been enacted, and the fearful ordeal through 
which hundreds of thousands of Armenians are now 
passing. It is now openly confessed by certain Mo- 
hammedans, that the systematic massacres that went 
on from village to village was simply the prosecution 
of a plan well understood by the Turks, to exter- 
minate all native Christians in Armenia, and it is 
generally believed that the Sultan ordered these 
massacres, those who led the blood-thirsty business 
being under his appointment. 

Four days ago, I went as near the town of Oorfa 
as I was allowed to go, and from the most reliable 
sources I have positive proof of Ottoman persecu- 
tions, more diabolical than any reported through 
the American or English Press. 

The Massacre at Oorfa. 

So far as magnitude is concerned, Oorfa heads the 
list, with fully 8,000 victims in the last massacre 
alone. The number sacrificed in the great church 
where they had fled for safety, is now ascertained to 
be about 4,000, and in the streets and suburbs of 
the village nearly the same number of bodies were 
found, cut and mangled most terribly. 

It is evident, that if special honorable recogni- 
tion by his Majesty, the Imperial Sultan, is to be 
bestowed upon those of his loyal warriors who have 
carried out the task assigned them on the grandest 



36 * AEMENIA. 

and the most Satanic scale, bis Oorfa legion will 
come in for the highest rewards. 

A private letter from a missionary, who is at 
present in Oorfa, that is before me as I write, 
explains what has hitherto been mere conjecture — 
namely, as to how the Turkish soldiers succeeded 
in burning these 4,000 victims in the church. 

This missionary, who has made careful investiga- 
tion on the spot, explains that a gallery extends 
around three sides of this church, and from here, 
a great quantity of petroleum was poured upon 
these defenseless men, women and children, who 
were jammed together on the floor below. Num- 
bers of them were butchered before this was done, 
and the fifty or sixty who escaped to the roof, were 
overtaken and tossed into the flames. 

It seems that after the petroleum had been poured 
down upon them from the galleries, lighted torches 
were thrown among them. Is it possible to con- 
ceive of anything more diabolical ? 

Among those who thus perished, were aged men 
and women, mothers with babies at their breasts, ill 
persons just taken from their beds, and hundreds of 
boys and girls. 

The church building where this occurred, which 
had been used for many years as a place of worship 
by the Armenians, has been converted by these 
murderous Turks into a Mohammedan mosque, 
where prayers are now daily offered to the Prophet 
Mahomet. 



ARMENIA. 37 

The Victims at Biredjik. 

The massacre at Biredjik, only a few miles from 
Oorfa, is hardly less revolting. The facts below 
are given by a Christian citizen of the place, and 
were received by me last night. The Christian 
population of Biredjik, occupied about two hun- 
dred houses. For mouths, the Christians were 
kept almost wholly within their houses from fear. 
Some weeks since, about two hours after sunrise, 
a massacre began, without any apparent cause, and 
continued until far into the night. The Turkish 
soldiers and Mohammedans in the city, generally, 
participated in it. 

At first, the principal object seemed to be plunder, 
but later on, the soldiers undertook the work of 
systematic killing; and profession of Islam or death 
was the alternative of all those who named the name 
of Christ. 

-Many of the victims were dragged to the River 
Euphrates, and with stones tied to them, were 
drowned. In some cases several bodies were found 
tied together, and thus thrown into the river. One 
young man was caught, a rope tied around his neck; 
and while he was being dragged to the Euphrates, 
he succeeded in freeing himself three times, but 
finally, after being tortured in a nameless manner, 
he was overpowered, and amid the shouts of the 
demons, he was tossed into a watery grave. 



38 ARMENIA. 

Islam or the Sword. 

Every house belonging to a Christian in the vil- 
lage, was plundered, except two, which were saved 
by Moslem neighbors, who claimed them as their 
property. Christian girls were eagerly sought after, 
and much dispute and quarrelling occurred in 
dividing them among their captors. If they refused 
immediately to marry young men of the Moham- 
medan faith, they were tortured into obedience, or 
cast into harems. There is not a single Christian 
remaining in Biredjik. Scores of men and women 
were brought forward ; they were offered protection 
if they would embrace the Islam religion ; and those 
who refused (and nearly all of them did refuse) were 
put to death after lingering persecution. 

As the Turks doubted the sincerity of the new 
converts, they arranged a new massacre, which was 
only averted by the new converts promising to change 
the Armenian churches into mosques. 

They are now at work making the required alter- 
ations in the buildings. The Protestant church will 
be turned into a Moslem schoolhouse if the mis- 
sionaries do not claim it as American property. The 
misery and suffering among the plundered, cannot be 
described. 

Lady Teachers Captured. 

The wife (a recent graduate of the American girls' 
College at Marash) and child of the Protestant 



AEMENIA. 39 

preacher (who is imprisoned at Oorfa), and two 
young lady teachers, with some twenty other persons, 
hid themselves in a cave, but were discovered and 
seized by the Turkish mob. All the men and boys 
were killed, and the women carried off to Moslem 
houses. The women were dragged by the hair and 
badly beaten, but being unable to compel them even 
in this way to go with them, the Turks carried 
them on their backs. They tried to kill the babe of 
the pastor's wife, but she pressed it so closely to her 
bosom, that at last they desisted, as they feared she 
would be harmed, and she was wanted for their 
harem. 

For more than three weeks every effort was 
made, including threats of death, to make these 
three women (the pastor's wife, and the two lady 
teachers of the mission) profess Islam, but they 
steadfastly refused. Wedding preparations were 
being made to force the women to marry Mo- 
hammedans, when the district governor received 
an order from Aleppo, commanding them to be 
sent under guard to the missionaries in Aintab, 
which changed their fate. 

Distress and Work of Relief. 

The news that has just reached me from Marash 
is of the most distressing nature. IN^early ten thou- 
sand are receiving daily help from the missionaries, 
and there is every indication that this number must 



40 ARMENIA. 

be greatly increased in the near future, if the funds 
at the disposal of the missionaries permit of it. 

One who was appointed to visit the district and 
distribute funds, referring to the condition of affairs, 
exclaimed : " This region has been one vast flaming 
hell." In Van, between 15,000 and 20,000 are 
dependent upon the relief work that is carried on 
through the agency of the missionaries. A letter 
from there, that is lying before me, says : '^ I am 
sure that all who have interested themselves in rais- 
ing funds, would feel themselves abundantly repaid 
for the trouble and self-sacrifice, if they could see 
the misery their money is relieving. We are, at 
present, spending at the rate of a thousand dollars 
per week, and I am confident that another thousand 
could be spent in the same way of relieving only the 
most distressing need, and that, too, in a meagre 
enough fashion. 

" Hundreds of refugees are living in cold, damp 
places, on earth floors, with absolutely no bedding, 
very little, in some cases, no fuel; and with nothing 
to eat save the dry bread we gave them. 

" Since last year the Bazars have been closed ; 
hence, everybody in the city is out of employment, 
while life in the village is, for the most part, well- 
nigh or absolutely impossible. 

" The Turkish officials are watching carefully 
every effort to distribute money and provisions 
among these wretched victims of their cruelty, and 
they have been known repeatedly to force the 



ARMENIA. 41 

widows and orphans of those whom they have 
murdered, to give up funds that came to provide 
against starvation.^^ 

A Bit of History. 

If we accept the Armenian histories, the first 
ruler of the Armenians was the son of Togarmah, 
the son of Gomar, the son of Japheth, the son of 
Noah, and it is interesting to note that they, even to 
this day, call themselves Haik for this ruler, their 
language "Haiaren,'^ and their country ^'Haiasdan." 

The word '^Armenian," was given them by other 
nations, because of the bravery of one of their Kings, 
Aram, the seventh ruler from Haik. Until A. D. 
1375, they were a proud and independent nation, but 
since the latter quarter of the fourteenth century, 
their country has been under the government of 
Russia, Persia, and during most of the time, under 
Turkey. 

During the period from 600 B. C. to nearly 400 
A. D., the time of their greatest advancement, they 
showed remarkable prowess in the wars of the 
Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. 

From the incomplete government returns, it is 
estimated that at present, there are between two 
and a half and three millions of Armenians in 
Turkey, and these are everywhere surrounded by 
Turks and Kurds, many of whom are armed by 
the government, while the Armenians are forbid- 



42 AEMENIA. 

den to cany or possess arms, under the severest 
penalties. 

Their Religion and Clergy. 

In the third century, under the influence of 
Gregory the illuminator, the Armenians as a nation, 
became Christian ; and this was the first time in the 
history of the world, that Christianity was adopted 
as a national religion. 

By the outsiders their church was then called 
" Gregorian ; ^^ and afterwards the Gregorians and 
Greeks worked in a fraternal spirit in the great 
councils of the church, until 451 ; but at the fourth 
Ecumenical Council, which met at Chalcedon that 
year, the Gregorian Church separated from the 
Greek, upon the Monophysite doctrine, the former 
accepting, and the latter rejecting it. 

There are nine grades of Armenian clergy. The 
spiritual head is a Catholicos; but in addition to him, 
there is a patriarch whose duties have largely to do 
with the political side of the national life as related 
to the Ottoman government. 

In the fifth century, the bible was translated into 
their, language ; but the book has largely been a 
sealed one, as far as the people are concerned. For 
more than a thousand years, the Armenians have 
been subject to the bitterest persecutions, and dur- 
ing these centuries they have willingly chosen death 
with terrible torture, rather than prove false to their 
faith. 



AEMENIA. 43 

Culture and Education. 

As is pointed out by a recent writer, and gener- 
ally admitted to be true, the strong tendency to 
disagree among themselves has greatly weakened 
their national character; and the wily Turks have 
repeatedly taken advantage of their suspicions of 
each other, and their internal rivalries, by playing 
one party off against another. 

There can be no question, but that the Armenians 
are the most intelligent of all the people of Eastern 
Turkey, and in Western Turkey, their only rivals 
are the Greeks. For more than a score of years, 
Armenian young men have attained high scholar- 
ships in the universities of Europe and America; 
and the eager desire among the people for a liberal 
education, is very marked. 

It is worthy of note, especially in this part of the 
world, that this people give special encouragement to 
female education ; and it was my pleasure to address 
a college of two hundred and fifty Armenian girls in 
Smyrna last week, where there was every indication 
of culture and refinement. 

Traders and Farmers. 

The Armenian is the trader and banker of this 
part of the world. The Mohammedan is no match 
for him, and this is where the rub lies. An impar- 
tial judge, who is neither a Christian nor a Moham- 



44 ARMENIA. 

medan, informed me in an interview, yesterday, 
that if you put five Armenian shopkeepers on the 
same street with ten Mahommedans, in a short while, 
provided both are granted the same privileges, the 
former will control the whole business, from one 
end of the street to the other. 

Although the Turkish government has imposed 
upon them the most unjust laws, and excessive 
taxes, they have kept well to the front, and until 
these persecutions and massacres commenced, some 
of the leading business operations in the country 
were in their hands. They are also the leading 
artisans and farmers. I have the statement from a 
reliable source, that twenty-five years ago, in certain 
large sections, the land was owned almost entirely by 
Moslems, but rented and farmed by the Armenians; 
but lack of industry on the part of the Moham- 
medans, has led them to sell many of their large 
estates to the Armenians, many of whom became 
proprietor farmers. A Turkish governor is quoted 
as saying, that if the Armenians should suddenly 
emigrate or be expelled from Eastern Turkey, the 
Moslem would necessarily follow soon, as there 
was not enough commercial enterprise and ability, 
coupled with industry, in the Turkish population, 
to meet the absolute needs of the people. 

Home and Family. 

While at one time in their history, they gained 
distinction as warriors, they seem at present to be 



AEMENIA. 45 

domestic in thought and habits; and apparently 
they are possessed with little military ambition, or 
desire to rule. I have had the privilege of seeing 
something of their home living, and seldom have I 
seen sweeter pictures of domestic life, than were 
witnessed in their quiet family circles. Their home 
government is patriarchal, the father ruling the house- 
hold as long as he lives, and at his death, the eldest 
son takes his place at the head of the family. Chil- 
dren have the highest respect for their parents, and 
they never become too old to seek the counsel, and 
obey the word of father and mother ; and especial 
respect is given to the aged. 

An Unmixed Race, 

In the eloquent words of another, ^* Here we have 
a race old in National history when Alexander in- 
vaded the East, and with its star of Empire turning 
towards decline when the Csesars were at the height 
of their power ; a nation not mingling in marriage 
with men and women of another faith and blood, 
now as pure in its descent from the undiscovered 
ancestors of nearly three decades of centuries ago, 
as the Hebrews stand unmixed with Gentile blood ; 
with a language, a literature, a national church dis- 
tinctively its own, and yet a nation without a coun- 
try, without a protector or friend in all God's world. 

" This is not because it has sinned, but because it 
has been terribly sinned against ; not because of its 



46 AEMENIA. 

intellectual^ or moral, or physical weakness^ but 
because it has little to offer in return for the service 
which the common brotherhood of man among 
nations should prompt the Christian nations of the 
world to render/^ 

In all her varied history, I suppose that the sky 
over the national life of Armenia, was never so star- 
less as it is to-day. The great powers of the European 
continent turn deaf ears to her cries, some of them 
apparently giving indirect indorsement to the rotten 
rule, Satanic savagery and murderous madness of the 
Moslem Sultan ; and if substantial aid is rendered, 
in putting bread in the mouths of these widowed, 
orphaned and plundered thousands, and in creating 
a world-wide sentiment in their favor, it must come 
from that country, which is to-day the hope of the 
world and the inspiration of mankind — generous, 
liberty-loving America. 

Appalling Destitution. 

Recent letters from Erzeroum, which are before 
me, state that relief is now afforded to over 50,000 
destitute persons in that province. It is not at- 
tempted to relieve poverty ; the only thought is to 
keep people alive. Let a few cases, recently ex- 
amined, suffice to illustrate the present appalling 
state of the Christian population of the province of 
Erzeroum. 



ARMENIA. 47 

One young man came for aid, who had walked 
ninety miles, through dangerous districts. His 
statement was as follows : There are eighty-five 
Armenian houses in the village, to which he belongs. 
Every house was plundered, and many persons were 
killed. The survivors were saved by embracing 
Islam. An order from the government was subse- 
quently received, permitting the Armenians to return 
to the faith of their fathers. Even then, fifteen 
families, from fear of their Turkish neighbors, dared 
not renounce their recently adopted faith. The 
massacre occurred when the grain in the fields was 
ripe. No one dared go out of the village to reap it. 
The Kurds came, divided the fields among them- 
selves, and cut and carried away the grain. 

The present destitution is indescribable. Several 
persons have died of hunger. The young man's 
father and brother were killed, and he left a wife 
and several small children in the deepest want, that 
he might come and present a statement of the need 
of his village, and of three other villages equally 
needy. 

Grinding Oppression. 

During the first week in May, fifty-seven villagers 
came to Erzeroum from another group of eight 
villages seventy-five miles away. They came to 
represent their sad condition to the relief committee, 
and to appeal also to the governor of the province, 
for oxen, agricultural implements, and grain seed, 



48 AKMENIA. 

and especially for protection from the lawless Kurds, 
among whom they dwell. 

They had been kept from starvation during the 
winter, by the aid of the relief committee, for which 
they were most thankful. But the Spring had come ; 
and they had no seed to sow, no oxen, no plows, no 
harrows, and even if they had all these, they would 
not dare to go outside the village to the fields, fearing 
the Kurds would fall upon them. Even if we sow 
our fields, they said, we have no assurance that we 
can reap them, and if we succeed in sowing our fields 
and reaping the grain, we have no assurance that 
the Kurds will not come upon us in the Autumn, and 
plunder us again. Is there no escape? Is there no 
deliverer? We are willing, they said, to sacrifice 
our houses, our lands, yea, and the very clothes we 
have on, if we can only find relief from this grind- 
ing oppression, anxiety and danger. 

Kurdish Rohhers. 

Here is the story in brief, of the attack upon one 
of the above named villages. The Kurds swooped 
down upon the village without any warning. On 
seeing them approach, mothers took their babes, 
fathers and elder brothers grasped the hands of the 
younger children, and all the villagers, save a few 
old and infirm persons, made a rush for the hills. 
There was no time for any preparation, and many 
of the villagers fled with nothing on save their 



AEMENIA. 49 

cotton garments. The weather was very cold, and 
the snow was falling. From the hilltop to which 
they had fled, they could hear the cries of the as- 
saulted, and of the children in a neighboring village. 
After the Kurds had been busy for six hours, carry- 
ing away the goods of the villagers, and driving off 
their cattle, an officer from the local seat of govern- 
ment, a town six miles away, came and compelled 
the Kurds to vacate the village. He then, said a 
villager, called to us, and with assurances that he 
had come to protect us, induced us to descend. 

He demanded that we deliver up our guns. 
We protested that we had no guns. He insisted ; 
but we firmly denied that we had weapons of any 
kind. While this interview was being held, the 
Kurds returned in large force, and threatened even 
the life of the officer. He informed us that he could 
not protect us, and advised us to again fly for our 
lives. We immediately scattered, most of us taking 
the road to a village six miles away. It was already 
late in the evening, cold and snowy. Our sufferings 
on the way were indescribable. Several young 
children died, and a very few, if any, escaped sub- 
sequent illness from exposure. 

Pillage and Murder, 

Happy were those of our village, twelve in num- 
ber, who had been killed by the Kurds, exclaimed 
one of these wretched creatures. For ten days, we 
4 



50 ARMENIA. 

did not dare to return to our village, and when we 
did return, what a scene of desolation presented 
itself to us. Everything portable was gone. All 
livestock of every kind, driven away. The very 
doors of our houses were carried away, and, in 
some cases, the houses were pulled down and the 
timber taken. As all the bedding of the village was 
gone, they have slept on hay or straw, and as the 
doors of their houses had been carried away, for 
months they had been exposed, through the long 
nights, to the bitter wintry blasts. All the villagers 
have been ill with colds, and many have died from 
the effects of exposure. The representative of an- 
other village, after having given similar experiences 
of attack, flight, massacre, pillage, exposure and 
destitution, ended the sad recital with the words : 
" Two of my nephews, grown up young men, who 
had wives and children, followed after the Kurds, 
with the hope of recovering some of their sheep. 
The Kurds murdered them and threw their bodies 
into the river." Then the poor old man burst into 
tears, and the hearts of all those who heard him, 
bled for him, and for the widows and fatherless 
children. 

A Piteous Account. 

While these and other villagers were giving their 
sad recital of oppression and bloodshed, a fine- 
looking old man entered, and all of the villagers 
rose to their feet, in token of respect. He was the 



ARMENIA. 51 

wealthiest and most influential man of the whole 
district. He owned the land on which was built a 
village of twenty-five houses, and all of the inhabi- 
tants were dependent upon him for work. He sowed 
as much as 3,000 bushels of grain in one season. 
He had accommodations for fifty or sixty travellers, 
and his house was open to all comers. According 
to the custom of Oriental hospitality, all travellers 
who became his guests, and their horses, received 
all they needed, free of charge. 

This man said : '^ We are five brothers, all living 
together, a family of fifty souls. On the approach 
of the Kurds, we fled, and our movable property 
fell into their hands. They drove off' 1,200 sheep. 
The government intervened subsequently, and two 
were returned to us, one ram and one ewe. They 
took 150 head of horned cattle, including all the 
draught oxen. Of the cattle, twelve were subse- 
quently returned. They took twelve horses, of 
which, not one was returned. They left not a cart, 
not a plow, nor a harrow, nor a chain. They left 
the house utterly bare, carrying off" all the grain, 
all winter provision, household utensils, clothes 
and bedding." 

With evident emotion, the old man added : " And 
they killed my son, a clever young man of twenty- 
five years, who left a wife and four children. We 
are now destitute, I have not a penny in my pocket; 
and the coat I have on, I borrowed from a friendly 
Turk, that I might make a respectable appearance, 



52 ARMENIA. 

in calling upon you/' And so the story goes. My 
informants are leading men in their villages, and 
their statements have been fully confirmed. These 
men received an utterly inadequate dole of wheat 
and started on their return journey of seventy-five 
miles, to make a distribution among their fellow 
villagers, widows and children, who are suffering 
from hunger and sickness, and are hoping against 
hope. 

The Outbreak at Severek. 

After some delay and difficulty, I have received 
the following facts about the outbreak at Severek. 
There were some intimations of it, but they were 
unheeded by the Christians. About noon the storm 
broke, the market Avas surrounded, and with the 
exits closely guarded, nearly all of the Christians at 
that time in the market, were killed in a short half 
hour. From there, the Turks went to the houses, 
and did considerable killing, but soon turned to 
plunder. By night, all of the Christians were pretty 
well relieved of their goods. The next few days, 
they killed the Christians one by one, and also 
spent much time in digging up floors, to find 
monies hidden away there. Large numbers turned 
Moslem, and so saved their lives. These were, — 
very many of them at least — circumcised, and I 
think, all kept Ramadan. One creditable point ap- 
pears in Severek. Those who could get to Moslem 
houses and appeal for help, were usually taken in 



AEMENIA. 53 

and saved, i. e., protected, temporarily at least. The 
Christians were kept in this way, scattered through 
Moslem houses, for three weeks. By this time, the 
houses of the Christians were sufficiently dug up, 
broken down, etc., to make sure that no money nor 
valuables were left anywhere, and they were allowed 
to return home. 

Moslem Sympathy. 

The plundering being completed here, and many 
of their friends and relatives having been killed, of 
course their going home was, to the last degree, sad. 
When they went home, they had nothing. Subse- 
quently, acquaintances among the Moslems began 
to pity them ; and little by little they were given 
enough barely to cover them. 

Beds were also lent them. They began to beg, to 
do service in Moslem houses, and to turn a penny 
any way possible. Once, considerable wheat was 
collected, and the very poor had about two bushels 
apiece doled out to them. They were glad enough 
to get it. From Constantinople, including thirty 
pounds from the Archbishop, two hundred and five 
Turkish pounds, have been sent them. 

In consequence of the late massacre, there were 
said to be 500 widows here. This number is, per- 
haps, too large, but the number is certainly very great. 

I was told, that at Diarbekir, it was possible for 
single women to get work. 



54 ARMENIA. 

Begging Widows. 

Now the Severek widows are begging, though 
their condition is somewhat alleviated by the 205 
Turkish pounds sent there. The artisans and those 
who have trades, seem to be beginning work, and 
they are doing fairly well. But most of those who 
were merchants, cannot begin. And the poor 
widows have no resources at all. In most of the 
houses, the bedding is liable to be withdrawn at 
any time, as it is only a loan. 

The Syrians here were treated as badly as the 
Armenians, and even worse, as their quarter is in a 
more exposed place. Armenians from the town of 
Choonkoosh, not far away, were also sufferers. The 
Armenian church was torn down ; and the Protest- 
ant pastor, (Syrian) and Armenian priests were all 
killed. Armenian Catholic priests remained alive. 
They have now a good Caimakam, who is, day by 
day, making their lives more endurable. He is 
ably seconded by a military head, a major acting as 
brevet-colonel. One or two women were killed for 
attempting, to defend their husbands. Such is a 
meagre account of affairs in Severek. 

The First Mohammedan 3fassacre. 

The fact must not be forgotten that the Armenians 
inherited this land nearly as far back as the days of 
the Flood, and, according to the biblical account, the 



AEMENIA. 55 

Ark rested on Ararat, the central mountain of Ar- 
menia. They are the direct descendants of Japhet, 
and, belonging to the Caucasian family, they claim 
kin, both by blood and belief, to the great Christian 
nations of the earth. Although they did not 
acknowledge Christianity as a national religion 
until the third century, they received the teachings 
of Christ in the first century of the Christian era, 
and tradition tells us, that they offered Christ refuge 
from His persecutors, which He declined, but sent 
to them Thaddeus and Bartholomew, to teach them. 
They met their Mohammedan enemies, first in 1636, 
when they were defeated in battle, and twelve thou- 
sand men, women and children were massacred. 

Since then, the bloody tide of persecution and 
death has nearly continuously swept over their land, 
and during this time, millions have died heroic 
martyrs to the cause of Christ. The Armenian 
nation has been decreased from twenty-five millions 
to less than four millions, and if the present course 
is pursued by the Turkish Government and the 
European powers, the nation will be exterminated. 

Broken Treaties. 

When the Mohammedans under Mahomet II, cap- 
tured Constantinople in the fifteenth century, they 
found that civil and religious liberty was tolerated. 

But when the followers of Mahomet took pos- 
session of the city, they attempted to turn back the 



56 AKMENIA. 

tide of Christian civilization. The law of Islam is, 
that all who live on Mohammedan soil, must be 
Mohammedans, or die, but the Sultan may spare a 
tributary as a slave or an alien, if expedient. As it 
was impracticable in 1453 either to enslave, banish, or 
exterminate the Byzantines and their alien populations 
from their newly acquired Empire, without depopu- 
lating the country, they were allowed to remain, and 
their privileges, social, civil and religious, were 
recognized, as a political necessity. The Roman Em- 
peror had already granted to the Turkish residents 
of Constantinople the right to be ruled by Moslem 
law, administered by their own judges, previous to 
this conquest, thus extending to them the " Extra 
territorial rights ^^ which are recognized to-day, 
but which the Turks are trying to subvert to the 
murderous system of Mohammedanism. 

The Treaty of Paris. 

In 1856, after the close of the Crimean war, the 
following Firman of the Sultan was attached to it, 
and became a part of the treaty of Paris, between 
Turkey and the powers of Europe. '^ My Sublime 
Porte, will take energetic measures to insure to each 
sect whatever be the number of its adherents, entire 
freedom in the exercise of its religion. Every dis- 
tinction or designation tending to make any class 
whatever, of the subjects of my Empire inferior to 
another class, on account of their religion, language 



ARMENIA. 57 

or race, shall be forever effaced from the administra- 
tion protocol. 

" As all forms of religion are and shall be freely 
professed in my domains, no subject of my Empire 
shall be hindered in the exercise of the religion that 
he professes, nor shall he be in any way annoyed on 
this account. 'No one shall be compelled to change 
his religion. It shall be lawful for foreigners to 
possess landed property in my domain, conforming 
themselves, and police regulations, and having the 
same charges as the native inhabitants. The taxes 
are to be levied under the same denomination from 
all the subjects of my Empire, without distinction 
of class or religion." Consequent events prove how 
well this treaty has been kept. 

The Treaty of Berlin, of 1878, 

which was signed, not only by Turkey, but also 
by Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, and 
Russia, guaranteed absolute protection to Armenia. 
The sixty-first article of this treaty, reads as follows : 
" The Sublime Porte, undertakes to carry out with- 
out further delay, the ameliorations and reforms 
demanded by local requirements in the various 
provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guar- 
antee their security against the Circassians and the 
Kurds. It will make known periodically the steps 
taken to this effect to the Powers, who will super- 
intend their application." 



58 AEMENIA. 

The sixty-second article reads : " The Sublime 
Porte having expressed the intention to maintain the 
principle of religious liberty, and give it the widest 
scope, the contracting parties take note of this spon- 
taneous declaration. In no part of the Ottoman 
Empire, shall difference of religion be alleged against 
any person, as a ground of exclusion or incapacity 
as regards the discharge of civil and political rights, 
admission to the public employments, functions and 
honors, or the exercise of the various professions 
and industries. All persons shall be admitted with- 
out distinction of religion, to give evidence before 
tribunals. The freedom and outward service of all 
forms of worship are assured to all, and no hindrance 
shall be offered either to the Hierarchial organiza- 
tions of the various communions, or to their relations 
to their spiritual chiefs. The right of official pro- 
tection is accorded to religious and charitable estab- 
lishments." This treaty, which was the result of 
a conference of the powers in 1878, was intended to 
take the place of the treaty of San Stefano, signed 
by Turkey, as the victorious Russian armies and 
their liberated allies were closing in on Constanti- 
nople from the North, and sweeping triumphantly 
from Armenia, led by an Armenian general from 
the East. 

This was an outburst of popular indignation on 
the part of Russia, over the outrages in Bulgaria, 
which would have wiped out the Ottoman Empire, 
but for the powers of Europe, which interposed for 



ARMENIA. 59 

selfish interests, Great Britain going so far as to form 
her present offensive and defensive alliance with the 
Turkish government, thus protecting the Sultan's 
domains in Asia from further Russian aggression. 

The Cyprus Treaty. 

In return for this infernal agreement between 
" the leading nations of Christendom '^ and the head 
of heathendom, the island of Cyprus was ceded to 
Great Britain, to enable her to fulfil her part of the 
compact ; and the Sultan's government promised ^' to 
introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed upon later 
between the two powers, into the government, and 
for the protection of the Christian and other subjects 
of the Porte in these territories.'' 

The Reign of Terror under these Treaties 

is too horrible to dwell upon. More than a hundred 
thousand human beings have been unmercifully 
massacred, not to speak of the untold sufferings of 
at least a million homeless, naked, starving, foodless 
and friendless men and women, for whose protection 
these treaties were supposed to have been signed. 
It is well for us to notice how the treaty of 1830, 
between the United States of America and the Otto- 
man Empire, has been disregarded. Article four, 
of this treaty, reads thus : '^Citizens of the United 
States of America, quietly pursuing their commerce, 



60 AEMENIA. 

and not being charged or convicted with any crime 
or offence, shall not be molested, and even when 
they have committed some offence, they shall not 
be arrested and put in prison by the local authorities, 
but they shall be tried by their own minister or 
Consul, and punished according to their offence, 
following in this respect the usages of other Franks " 
— meaning Caucasian nations. 

Now this Treaty, like all others signed by the 
Turkish Government, has been repeatedly violated. 
Americans have been persecuted more than once ; 
one receiving ten sword-cuts from the son of an 
influential Kurdish chief, and having been bound 
hand and foot, was cast into the bushes to perish, 
near the village of Bitlis. Although this matter 
was brought to the attention of the Sultan of Con- 
stantinople, the Government has made no reparation, 
in any respect. It will also be remembered, that 
an American citizen, representing an American peri- 
odical, was robbed and murdered in Turkey, and 
his murderers, though reported to the Government, 
remained unpunished, and the Sublime Porte, has\/ 
so far ignored all demands for redress. I was in 
Asia Minor, during this year, when an honored 
American citizen, was illegally seized by Turkish 
authorities, and held as a prisoner, in spite of Con- 
sular protest. His release was repeatedly demanded, 
but the demands were completely ignored, until at 
last a telegram was sent, for a war vessel to enforce v 
the Treaty right. When the cowardly Turks became 



ARMENIA. 61 

aware of the telegram, they instantly released their 
prisoner, who proceeded to Constantinople, to stand 
trial in accordance with the Treaty of 1830, between 
the United States of America and the Ottoman Em- 
pire, although the charges against him were known 
to be ridiculously false. 

Relief for Armenians. 

Anxious to learn what has been done for the 
suiferiug Armenians, I at last secured a statement 
from a gentleman living in Harpoot, who is dis- 
tributing funds and provisions. The system of 
relief comprises several distinct departments. 

First, — The bread distribution. We have men 
who investigate the needs of the people in the city, 
whether natives or refugees, and give them tickets 
for bread at the rate of two loaves for each adult. 
The government gives three loaves for soldiers and 
gendarmes. These tickets they carry to the bakers 
with whom we have contracted to furnish bread, 
and the bakers settle with us by means of these 
tickets. These bakers are kept busy in supplying 
the needy, who are for the most part refugees from 
other places. The number now on our list is 2,379, 
but it increases from week to week, in spite of the 
closest scrutiny of the lists, to keep out those who 
could by any means live without help. We have 
committees in various wards of the city to examine 
the lists. One of our number looks after the dis- 



62 ARMENIA. 

tribiition of the tickets, and the settlement of the 
accounts with bakers. 

Aid to Refugees. 

Second. — Aid to refugees. This is under the care 
of a commission. They give aid to 1,910 souls. 
We are trying to get these refugees to go back to 
their villages as soon as possible, but they cannot 
go just yet. 

Third. — The making of beds and underclothing. 
This department is under the care of two ladies. 
We rented a house, where they employ needy 
women to make suits of underclothing and beds. 
The sewing is given out to women who take it to 
their homes, and make suits of underclothing, for 
one and a half piasters. They can make about one 
suit per day. This enables many poor women to 
keep their families supplied with bread. Over 
three hundred women have been employed in this 
way. From this centre, we send out clothes and 
beds to the villages, and supply the refugees who 
come here. The women also make stockings, which 
we buy of them. From this department also, we 
send out cotton to the villages, to be spun into 
thread, the thread we give to weavers to be made 
into cloth, and the cloth we use for clothing, paying 
for the work at each step. In this way, many 
families are helped along. 



ARMENIA. 63 

Industrial Help. 

Fourth. — The industrial relief for men. We 
have furnished work to a number of men, in clear- 
ing away the ruins of our burnt buildings, and 
getting ready to build. Many families are aided in 
this way, which must have otherwise been put on 
the bread list. I have kept a careful account of 
this list, and we shall pay back a portion of the 
expense into the relief fund, on account of the work 
done for the college, although most of the work 
would have been left, were it not for our desire to 
help men, without pauperizing them. The wages 
paid are very low. 

Fifth. — The distribution of money to the towns 
and villages. The peculiar conditions existing have 
made it seem to us better to give money, than grain 
or other food stuffs. We are trying to aid a people 
who are famishing, with plenty to eat all around 
them. The harvests were better than usual this 
year, and there is food which can be bought, for 
those who have it, prefer money to grain. More- 
over, money is small in bulk, and can be distributed, 
without attracting attention, as loads of grain, 
etc., would do. 

Distribution of Money and Clothing. 

The winter has been an unusually open one, and 
the villagers have come to us in throngs. We have 



64 AEMENIA. 

listSj carefully prepared, of the needy in each village, 
keeping out, so far as possible, all who can live 
without help. The lists from the Harpoot villages, 
are prepared by the central commission in Mezreh. 
We have a commission here to certify the lists from 
the Palu regions. We have also another commission 
to examine and certify lists from Charsanjak villages. 
After the lists have been certified, and recorded in 
our books, I pay at the rate of ten piasters for 
adults, and five for children. We expect these 
rations to last about one month, but we have made 
it go longer than a month, for most villages, because 
we have not money enough to pay oftener. In 
Malatia, Arabkir, Peri, Charsanjak, Chemishgesek, 
Choonkoosh, and Egin, and the Aghun villages, aid 
is distributed through the commissions in those 
places, who send us their lists, and reports of dis- 
tribution. We make this a Gondition of their 
receiving aid. 

The clothing sent from Constantinople, has been 
distributed in Malatia (19 bales), Arabkir (10 bales), 
Palu (2 bales), Aghun villages (2 bales), Mezreh and 
Harpoot (4 bales), and there are 18 bales here now, 
and to be distributed this week. They have just 
arrived, and will be distributed at once. 

We are just beginning our second payment to 
villagers. I hold back all I can, in order to make 
the money go as far as possible, although it almost 
wears me out, to stand up against the constant 
pressure of want and misery. We have aided up 



ARMENIA. 65 

to the present time, 9,655 families, containing 54,586 
souls, besides the Egin villages, the report of which 
is not yet at hand. The villagers have been able 
to travel, and come to us quite freely, and in this 
way, thousands have been helped, to whom we could 
not have gone in person. 

Appeal for Contributions, 

Sixth. — General observations. The tremendous 
size of the problem facing us, grows upon us as 
we go on. I do not think that any centre in the 
country is surrounded with such a vast number of 
destitute people, as is Harpoot. The number of 
the needy increases because many who had a little 
food, have now exhausted their store. For multi- 
tudes, the summer will bring no alleviation of their 
distress. There are thousands of widows and or- 
phans, thrown upon the world, and with no bread 
winners. There are artisans without tools, farmers 
without seed or cattle, and people without houses. 
What are they to do? The prospect is awful. This 
stirring appeal lies before me : I hope you may be 
able to give us means to help us, at least in the 
matter of seed and cattle, but to maintain the present 
lines of relief work only, down to the end of the 
month, we dare not estimate less than ten thousand 
liras (T. 10,000). Our rate of expenditures is now 
more than a thousand liras, per week. Choonkoosh, 
is just opening for relief operations. In Egin the 
5 



66 ABMENIA. 

number of needy is increasing, as it is also in all 
parts of our field. If we make any adequate pro- 
vision for beds, and clothing, ten thousand liras will 
not be enough. This estimate takes no account of 
houses burned, cattle stolen, tools destroyed, people 
left without any means of support. It leaves out of 
sight the effort to set the people on their feet again. 
It is concerned simply with the task of prolonging 
their lives in the pit into which they have fallen. 
As we consider matters, it seems to us that the esti- 
mate of 100,000 destitute people in this field, is not 
exaggerated. If we should reckon on giving one 
lira for each destitute soul, it would require 100,000 
liras, and one lira per soul is not an extravagant 
estimate, if people are to be at all adequately clothed 
and fed. The point I wish to bring out, is, that 
our relief work is now on the lowest possible scale. 
"We cut off from our lists thousands who are really 
needy, because they can manage to live, and our 
concern now, is to save lives, not to make it com- 
fortable, much as we long to do that also. 

Danger of Epidemics, 

I am sure that it would be difficult to comprehend 
the awful state of things at Harpoot. Yesterday, I 
had a group of refugees in my room. The odor of 
their persons was almost unendurable. All of these 
men were merchants and well-to-do farmers, a few 
months since. In such a state of things, the danger 



AEMENIA. 67 

of disease and epidemics is greatly increased. It is 
not a district that has suffered^ but a kingdom deso- 
lated, and a nation- in danger of perishing. Our 
hearts almost faint, when we consider the magnitude 
of the problem, but we must strive to get it before 
you. Please do not consider this rhetoric or exag- 
geration, I dare not exaggerate in the present situa- 
tion. I am constantly putting restraint upon my 
words, lest I should say anything more than the 
sober truth, the awful facts of the situation. I am 
still more doubtful whether my estimate is large 
enough. New villagers keep coming in, whose 
supplies are exhausted, and my estimate of souls 
helped has already fallen behind the reality, by 
six or seven thousand. From a different source of 
information, I learn that there are no less than 
eight thousand widows in one city in this disti;ict, 
whose husbands were murdered, and thousands of 
orphans are being fed by contributions from Eng- 
land and America. 

A Hopeless Condition. 

An Armenian, who was the wealthiest man in his 
town, said : " I had twenty yoke of buffaloes, besides 
many oxen, cows and sheep. The Kurds attacked 
us. Many were killed ; but a few of us escaped. On 
returning to our village, I found my house empty, 
farming implements all gone, my live stock driven 
off. The one thing that escaped was my hay. This, 



68 ARMENIA. 

as is our custom, was tied in bundles, and stacked 
upon my buildings. [All buildings in this part of 
the country have flat roofs.] In former years the 
government collected taxes in kind. This year the 
tax-gatherer demanded money. He came in winter, 
when all the exposed bundles were soaked with rain, 
and frozen with ice. One of these was selected and 
weighed. It weighed 61 pounds. When dry, it 
would weigh 35 pounds. Counting all the bundles, 
wet and dry, he estimated them at 61 pounds each. 
Then valuing the total, he demanded 10 per cent., 
which amounted to over five pounds." 

You will notice that he had to pay taxes on stock, 
over 40 per cent, of which was water. We know 
something of " watering stock " in other countries. 
The above is the Oriental method. The poor fellow 
could not pay the bill, and it now stands against 
him. So the story goes ! The deeper one delves 
into the " slough of despond," the more hopeless one 
feels for the future of these poor people. The nar- 
rators of these experiences, are the leading men in 
their villages. The truth of their statements, we 
have fully confirmed. What could we say to these 
poor destitute people ! Any words of comfort we 
might offer seemed idle mockery. After pointing 
them to the Source of all comfort and consolation, 
we could only assure them of our sincere sympathy, 
and distribute among them provisions from English 
and American friends. 



AKMENIA. 69 



At Stamboul. 



The savage work of the Sultan and his followers, 
is going on here in Constantinople. The President 
of the largest foreign college in Asia Minor, who 
bears a name that is greatly honored in America, 
told me, that last week, 1,500 Armenians were 
imprisoned in the city ; that all available space in 
the prisons were crowded with these perfectly inno- 
cent men, and that every night, special trains were 
loaded with Armenians, taking them, no one knew 
where. The Sultan is just now greatly agitated in 
reference to the murder of the Shah of Persia. It 
is a fact that is not generally known, that the man 
who assassinated the Shah, was the guest of the 
Sultan not less than a year ago for more than two 
months ; and the man who planned the conspiracy, 
is now in Constantinople, drawing a salary from the 
Turkish government of 76 pounds per month. A 
demand by the Persian government has been made 
for the delivery of this man, but the Sultan declines 
to give him up. How long can all this last ? 

Atrocities at ^Zile. 

Zile is a town of 5,000 houses, 350 to 450 being 
Armenian, 15 to 20 Greek, the rest Turkish. After 
the announcement of the scheme of reforms, when 
disastrous events were reported of other cities, J, 200 
E^ediif soldiers were drafted, and half of them being 



70 ARMENIA. 

quartered id a khan, the other half being stationed 
in and about the city, it was hoped that Zile would 
be left in safety. But threats from the Turkish 
population being heard, and increasing, the Arme- 
nians grew fearful; and some desiring to close their 
shops, and remove their goods to their houses, were 
prevented by the officers, who called the principal 
men of the Armenians, assured them that there was 
nothing to fear, and urged them to continue their 
business. At the time of the annual " gaire " in 
Zile, the authorities sent out of the city, the crowd 
of Circassians, Kurds, and other villagers who had 
gathered, leaving the city to its usual inhabitants. 
The Armenian fear increasing, the governor sent 
them a document, saying : ^^ The government is 
making all this expense for your protection, and 
for you to show fear, is an insult to the government, 
for which I will treat you as rebels, and determine 
your punish ment.^^ Most Armenian shop-keepers 
returned to their places, and of those whose business 
did not require shops, fifty or sixty of the principal 
men w^ere collected by the police at a casino, in the 
market, under pretence of business about taxes. 
At noon, the trumpet was blown, and the Turks, 
soldiers, and civilians together, began to assault the 
Armenians with the cry, '^ Down with the Armenians ; 
this is the Sultan's order. Real estate to the crown, 
commodities to plunder." The captain gave orders 
to forty or fifty soldiers to open fire. They obeyed, 
and when the Armenians tried to run from the 



ARMENIA. 71 

market to their houses, they found soldiers stationed 
in the quarters as well as the armed Turkish mob, 
neither of whom showed any quarter to the Chris- 
tians. Of those in the Casino, all but fifteen or 
twenty were killed ; the latter escaped one by one, 
though wounded. In two hours, two hundred shops 
were looted. The governor called to the crowd : 
" Be active, don't fail in killing, plundering, or 
praying for the Sultan. '^ The other officers joined 
in the killing. A major attended to the distribution 
of the cartridges, as the supply was exhausted. The 
officers arranged to have the most valuable plunder 
secured by their men, for themselves. 

The Savage Turk. 

From the market, the attack proceeded to the 
different quarters of the city. The soldiers fired 
over walls, into upper windows, and at anyone in 
sight. Under cover of their fire, the mob burst 
open gates, delivered up remaining inmates, and 
sacked the houses. A prominent man, long a 
member of the " Irade Mejlisi,'' was killed with 
his two sons, and thrown from the upper window. 

A woman tried to intercede for her husband, and 
was killed with him, their young babe sharing their 
fate. An old man eighty years old, was killed by 
the mob, and then his skull was broken in pieces, 
by a man equally as aged. A young man was halted 
by the crowd, and a man put a revolver in the hand 



72 ARMENIA. 

of his son, a lad of eight or ten years, saying : 
"Shoot, my boy, and learn how to kill giaours." 
The alternative of life on the acceptance of Moham- 
madanism was commonly offered. One, a priest, 
bared his own heart to the weapons about him, 
rather than deny Christ. He was killed. Another 
said : " I do not believe in Mohammedanism, but I 
will die for the honor of Christ, in the Name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'' 
He was bayoneted to death. 

In all, 200 shops and 300 houses were looted, 
150 to 200 were killed, 50 to 60 wounded. One 
hour before sunset, the trumpet was blown again, 
and the mob began to desist, though some could not 
be called from the spoils till sunset put an end to 
activity, and gave the remaining Armenians time to 
realize the horror of the situation. When the 
trumpet blew, it was announced by a cryer that the 
remaining Armenians would be gathered to the 
government for protection, but only 15 or 20 could 
then be found. They were taken to the government 
house, helped along when they fainted at the sight 
of the corpses in the street, by the butt-end of guns. 
They were told that they would be killed by sunrise, 
unless they turned Moslems, and turbans of green 
and white were wound about their heads, in the 
attempt to force them to change their faith ; and the 
same alternative was pressed on those who took 
refuge in Turkish houses. 



ARMENIA. 73 

Piles of the Murdered. 

During the night, the dead were gathered in 
wagons, and carried to trash piles, outside of the 
city. Though some wounded begged to be carried 
home, they were killed, and carted away with the 
rest. Bodies were thrown from the upper stories, 
and dragged by cords tied to the feet. The next 
day, one hundred were buried in one trench in the 
Armenian cemetery ; of whom, all but three were 
cut and hacked beyond recognition, as testify the 
doctors and priests in attendance. The burial place 
of the rest is unknown to this day. The Arme- 
nians hid in garrets, under straw or manure, and 
many in the houses of the Turks. The latter 
sheltered them, first in hope of winning them to 
Islam, second in hope of money reward, and third, 
in a few cases out of friendship or humanity. The 
Protestant preacher and his family were saved, and 
the church premises untouched, apparently owing to 
the friendship of one Turkish woman. The next 
day, all were gathered to the government, where 
they were urged to become Mohammedans. ^* Don't 
rely on European Christians,'^ was said, "the 
English have fled with their fleets. The Russians 
have accepted Mohammedanism." Two persons 
became Mohammedans. A score of men were 
imprisoned, charged with being leaders in the 
revolution. There had never been a revolutionary 
society in the place. When orders came for exami- 



74 AEMENIA. 

nation into the "event," two Turks were imprisoned. 
They bawled out : " The governor gave orders, and 
we killed and plundered ; now will they put us in 
prison ? " Next day, they were quietly released. 
The total loss is reckoned at one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred thousand Turkish pounds. Ten of 
the slain were women, twenty or thirty, children. 
Those who escaped are bereft of everything. One 
thousand five hundred persons, are in sorest need 
of aid from fellow Christians. News is very slow 
in reaching us, as to these events. Last week a 
reliable man came from there, and for the first time 
we heard the full account. He carried back a 
wagon load of bedding and clothing given here, 
and twenty liras. Doubtless, more aid will be 
sent soon. 

Official Estimates. 

I see no reason to modify my former statement, 
to the effect, that about 90,000 Armenians in the 
Sivas province are dependent upon what is given 
them to keep them from starvation. Thus far, 
relief in this province, as far as it has been given 
by foreigners, has been limited to the smallest 
possible amount, but the destitution is increasing, 
and those who are distributing relief should know 
what further sums they may expect. Many of the 
people are now compelled to live on roots found 
in certain portions of the country. Arrangements 
had been made for the relief of the district about 



ARMENIA. 75 

Gemerek, but a letter just at hand, states: ^^The 
Vali of Sivas has refused to allow this to be done/' 
Unless definite instructions are sent from Constanti- 
nople to the Yali, to allow relief to be distributed, 
it will be difficult to do so. 

Turkish Statistics for Seven Districts. 

With estimated losses for two months only, from 
September 30th to IS'ovember 30th, 1895. 

Armenian population in large 

towns., 177,700. 

Reduced to starvation, about 75,000. 

Killed, according to estimates... 20,000. 
Number of Armenian villages, 

formerly 3,300. 

Number of Armenian villages, 

destroyed 2,500. 

Armenians living in villages, 

formerly 538,500. 

Reduced to starvation 350,000. 

From the above figures, it appears that the average 
number of inhabitants was, for each village, 163. 
Allowing for each of the 2,500 destroyed only one 
hundred killed, it would make the loss of life from 
villages alone, 250,000. Cutting this estimate in 
two would leave 125,000, which is 25,000 more than 
has been claimed by the highest figures, which doubt- 
less fall far short of the actual facts. 



76 AEMENIA. 

In view of the increasing destitution, and larger 
demands for help, I consider that at least 10,000 
pounds will be required to carry on this work. 

The Situation at Gurun. 

I have just received an exact census of the needy 
and destitute among the Armenians at.Guruu. My 
informant says : I visited the place, some time ago, 
and I am prepared to confirm from what I then 
saw, the correctness of the census I have received. 
To attempt to describe the condition of the people, 
is beyond my power. The inky blackness of the 
ground as far as the eye can reach over what was 
once a beautiful and attractive place, showed me 
at a glance, what a terrible foe fire can become. 
The prostrate walls of fifteen or sixteen hundred 
homes, that formerly were nestled so cosily in the 
midst of as many thrifty fruit gardens, were only 
to be seen where once was every indication of pros- 
perity and contentment. 

As I entered one ruined domicile after another, I 
heard only the piercing cry of anguish from the lips 
of the bereft wife or mother. The surviving people 
were huddled together in herds in stables; sometimes 
in a solitary room, left from the general wreck, all 
that remained standing of a once comfortable home. 
The miserable people were clothed in rags, confined 
only to the person by a string around the waist, and 
this constituted all the wearers had to cover their 



AEMENIA. 77 

bodies. The government was attempting to issue 
rations to the miserable people. The ration con- 
sisted of a part of a measure of wheat for each person, 
doled out once in five days. A private letter from 
Mardin, just to hand, contains these words : " About 
the first of April, the police began to make careful 
inquiries about the relief work, where the money 
came from, how much had come, where we were 
distributing, to how many, etc., etc. The next day 
they made a report to the Mutesarif, that hereafter 
there should be no distribution without the presence 
of a government official. The same day, I had a 
telegram from our distributing agent, whom he had 
sent to Redwan, saying that the Mudir of Redwan 
had arrested him, and sent him under guard to Sert, 
and that he was now in prison. A few days after, 
word was sent to the police, that there was to be a 
distribution in the monastery as usual, and request 
was made that some one be appointed to be present. 
We waited five hours, and no one came. 

Distribution Prohibited. 

"I then ordered the distribution to proceed. Two 
days later, I sent in a financial report to the Mute- 
sarif, of contributions received and distributed, as 
he had requested me ; and also a paper asking him 
to inform us, to whom we should look for the 
appointing of a government official, whose business 
it should be to be present at our distributions. 



78 ARMENIA. 

IN^ext day, I received his official reply, in which he 
said, that not only I should not have asked such 
a question, but that I had no right to make any 
distribution at all, and that accordingly I must turn 
over the balance of relief money to the government 
committee of distribution. Next day (his note 
reached me at sunset), I sent out word to all our 
distributing agents, to quit work until further notice. 
I also telegraphed the Central committee at Con- 
stantinople, that the government committee wanted 
me to hand over the money, and that I waited their 
order. Tn a few days, reply came to the effect, that 
according to the order from the Sublime Porte, the 
only condition to be complied with, was that an 
authorized official from the local commission of the 
government should be present at our distribution. 
I conveyed this information to the Mutesarif in a 
second note, and asked his pleasure. He verbally 
denied that he had ordered the money to be paid to 
the local government committee. This is now the 
fourth day since I asked his pleasure, and it has not 
yet been declared. To-day, I received a telegram 
from Sert, in which our agent said, he was to start 
to Mardin, under guard. Meanwhile, these ten days 
of suspension of the distribution have tired me 
more than twenty-four days of steady relief work, 
as it is very trying to refuse aid to hungry mortals, 
and those who have nothing to sleep on or to throw 
over them as they return to their damp houses in 
the village, which have neither doors, nor window 



AEMENIA. 79 

shutters (the plunderers not only sacked the houses, 
but carried off the doors and window shutters, and 
other loose parts of the buildings).^^ 

If this Fabian policy is continued twenty days 
longer, more will die of hunger than were slain by 
the sword. It behooves the people of Europe and 
America, to know well that as Sassoun grew to the 
dimensions of seven vilayets last fall, so now, the 
question is not the destruction of the Armenian 
nation, but the larger one of the extermination of 
all Christians. 

The situation here is still uncertain. The villa- 
gers about here do not dare to leave the monastery, 
to which they have fled for refuge, and return to 
their villages. Christians do not dare to go about, 
either on the plain, or in the mountains, unless 
accompanied by friendly Moslems. 

In view of the widespread sympathy that is now 
being manifested in both England and America for 
this practically enslaved and down-trodden race, in 
the overwhelming calamities that have so recently 
befallen them, it may be reasonably supposed that 
the governments and peoples of these two countries 
are interested in the asking and answering of the 
question : " What is to become of the Armenians ? '^ 

Whether we regard this question as referring to a 
choice between Islam or the sword on the one hand, 
or to a choice between a continued struggle for exist- 
ence under Moslem oppression and extortion, with 
the constant additional dread of torture and massacre, 



80 ARMENIA. 

and complete emancipation in some form or the other, 
it is a question which forces itself upon the Christian 
world to-day for solution. If we are to judge by 
the attitude of the great powers of Christendom toward 
the Armenians in their indescribable sufferings during 
the past months, England and America are the only 
two nations that choose to concern themselves with 
the present and ultimate fate of these people. It is 
for this reason that the arms of the Armenians are 
to-day outstretched toward Anglo-Saxon Christen- 
dom for hope and deliverance. 

Attitude of the Powers. 

To those who know the situation as it stands here 
to-day, in Asiatic Turkey, the future holds not a 
single ray of hope for any permanent betterment of 
the condition of the Armenians, so long as the Otto- 
man Empire holds together ; and the apparent deter- 
mination of the European powers that it shall not 
go to pieces so long as they can agree together to 
bolster it up, leaves but little prospect of relief from 
that source. The utter inability of these powers to 
afford them any protection while they remain sub- 
jects of the Turkish government, and scattered as 
they are to-day in every corner of the Empire, has 
been so painfully demonstrated during the past few 
months, that no hope of help and protection can ever 
be reasonably expected in the future from Christian 
Europe. It has also been just as fully demonstrated 



ARMENIA. 81 

that some, at least, of the European governments are 
absolutely determined that no part or parcel of the 
Empire shall be assigned to them where they would 
enjoy any measure of independence, or opportunity 
to work out their own legitimate destiny. In a word, 
it has now become not only perfectly evident that 
the Sultan is to be allowed to work out his own will 
toward his Armenian subjects with impunity, so far, 
at least, as European interference is concerned, but 
it is also equally evident that it is the will of his 
Majesty to give them over to every form of cruel 
oppression and diabolical torture and outrage which 
his fanatical and inhuman followers may choose 
to devise and inflict upon them. This, then, is the 
answer to our question : '^ What is to become of the 
Armenians ? '' — so long, at least, as they remain 
the subjects of his Imperial Majesty, Abdul Hamid 
II. The history of the past few months is to be 
the history of the future. The only possible hope, 
of even temporary amelioration is that which a change 
of rulers might bring. But even a change of rulers, 
or a change to a more responsible form of govern- 
ment, will not alter the attitude and spirit of Islam 
toward a subject Christian race. 

The Work of Belief. 

The noble and extensive relief work which is 
being carried on to-day, with the funds provided 
from England and America, attempts to do no more 
6 



82 ARMENIA. 

than to provide daily bread in the smallest possible 
quantity that will sustain life, and clothing sufficient 
to hide their nakedness. This is being done at the 
outlay of about one half-penny per day for each one 
of the hundreds of thousands of destitute. During 
the past six months, relief equivalent to the sum of 
half a million of dollars, has been distributed. By 
this means many thousands of lives have been saved 
from literal starvation ; and yet the condition of 
these sufferers to-day, cannot be said to be any 
real improvement upon what it was, when this 
relief work was undertaken. Farmers have been 
plundered of their implements for tilling the soil, 
and the seed with which to sow their fields. Arti- 
sans have been robbed of their tools, and the homes 
of these people have been utterly despoiled, while 
the shops of the merchants have been left bare. It 
is quite impossible with the funds furnished for relief 
work, to undertake to provide farmers, citizens and 
merchants, with those lost means of livelihood. 
Thousands of Moslems have become rich by the 
plunder and spoliation of their Armenian neighbors ; 
and the 100,000 pounds sterling, which have already 
been contributed by the Christians of England and 
America, does not represent a tithe of the possessions 
of the Armenians which are to-day in the hands of 
their Moslem masters and oppressors. The tide of 
beneficence for relief cannot be expected to flow 
continually, and even if such were possible, it would 
not be desirable to attempt thus to support an utterly 



AEMENIA. 83 

impoverished race. On the other hand, the knowl- 
edge that to regain their former status of self-reliant 
industry, would simply make them the objects of 
the renewed and continued rapacity of their Moslem 
masters, operates seriously against renewed efforts to 
regain their former position. All this argues the 
urgent necessity of other and permanent measures 
of relief, under conditions fitted to stimulate and 
encourage honest industry. 

A Colonization Scheme. 

Every instinct of true manliness and Christian 
sympathy rises against the idea of abandoning the 
Armenians to the inevitable fate that awaits them 
as subjects of the Turkish Empire. God has other 
and higher purposes for them to serve as benefactors 
of our race, and shall we not seek to open to them 
the opportunities which will afiFord them deliverance 
from their present bondage and scope for enlarged 
activity and usefulness ? 

Do they wish to Emigrate f 

The very suggestion of colonization raises at once 
a number of questions of primary and essential 
significance, and among these : Colonize where ? Do 
they wish to emigrate? Will the Turkish authorities 
permit them to leave the country ? Would such a 
scheme be practicable ? Do they possess the qualities 



84 AEMENIA. 

essential to successful colonization, such as the power 
of adaptation to new surroundings and conditions ? 
Are they desirable neighbors ? etc., etc. In the 
space of the present paper, it will not be possible to 
discuss each of these questions, separately, and in 
detail. In answer to the question, " where ? '^ I 
answer, unhesitatingly, in the United States and 
Canada. In view of the sympathy shown by the 
American and English governments, and the gener- 
ous response of the people of these two nations to 
the appeals for relief, it may be taken for granted, 
that every facility would be offered for colonizing 
portions of the Western territories and provinces of 
the United States and Canada, with these people, 
and that they would receive welcome to our hospita- 
ble shores. ^^ Do they wish to emigrate ? '^ Let the 
thousands who have been imprisoned for attempting 
to emigrate, answer this question. 

Will the Sultan allow itf 

Will the Turkish government permit them to 
leave the country ? Although the Turkish govern- 
ment has persisted in representing the Armenians 
as the only disturbing element to the peace and 
prosperity of the Empire, and as being the constant 
objects of Turkish pity and compassion, and tolera- 
tion, it is a strange fact, that laws have been made 
prohibiting them on pain of severe penalties, from 
leaving the country. These laws, for some years 



ARMENIA. 85 

past, have been rigorously enforced ; thougli in spite 
of this, some have escaped from this forced imprison- 
ment by bribing port officials. Now, however, I 
learn the government has adopted a different policy, 
and is readily giving passports to Armenians who 
wish to emigrate. This fact would much facilitate 
any scheme for colonization which might now be 
undertaken. Even should the government again 
attempt to prevent the emigration of the Armenians, 
surely even those powers which are most fearful of 
disturbing the status quo of the '^ Eastern question,^' 
could be trusted at least to use their authority to 
compel the Sultan to refrain from any attempt to 
prevent any scheme for the emigration and colonizing 
of the Armenians. 

Would it he Fracticablef 

Would a scheme for colonization be practicable ? 
Of course, in the present impoverished state of a 
large portion of the Armenians in the interior pro- 
vinces, any scheme for successful colonization would 
require the sanction and at least partial support of 
the American and British governments. The people 
of these two countries, could also be trusted to 
respond promptly and generously to an appeal to 
carry out any such scheme of practical and perma- 
nent relief, for those they are now supplying with 
daily bread and raiment. Government grants of 
land, or special facilities for easy purchase, would of 



S6 AEMENIA. 

necessity become a factor in any such scheme. A 
very large proportion, however, of Armenians, 
would undertake to emigrate on their own charges, 
and would at once form a self-dependent element in 
each colony or community. I have every confidence 
in the practicability of colonization, if taken up in 
an earnest, determined spirit. 

But it may be asked, would the Armenians make 
good colonists, and are they desirable neighbors? 
English and American missionaries, and others who 
have lived among the Armenians and who have 
had the best of facilities for studying their national 
characteristics, are accustomed to designate them, 
the '^Anglo-Saxons,^' or " Yankees'' of the Orient. 
It is unquestionable, that they possess some of the 
characteristics which distinguish the Anglo-Saxon 
race. They are hardy, energetic, and intelligent 
people. They are also progressive, and with the 
environments of our free Western institutions and 
.civilization, and under the authority of capable and 
responsible governments, they would unquestionably 
become an important and stable factor in our 
Western life and progress. They are a peaceful 
and law-abiding race, devoted to agricultural and 
commercial pursuits. They possess also the faculty 
of becoming skilled artisans, and are both capable 
and eager for intellectual advancement. They wish 
to live at peace with their neighbors, and would most 
assuredly prove themselves not only good neighbors, 
but also, loyal devoted citizens of our responsible 
government. 



ARMENIA. 87 

Going to Cyprus. 

An effort is now being quietly put forward by 
certain influential Englishmen, to transport the 
thousands of widows and orphans in Armenia, 
to the Island of Cyprus, where they would be 
granted land, and helped to, at least, partly sup- 
port themselves. Difficulties that were expected, 
have arisen, but these are supposed not to be 
insurmountable. Hundreds of men have secretly 
escaped the country, but the shores are all pa- 
troled; no Armenian is allowed to go from one 
village to another, without giving a full account 
of his movements, and without securing bond for 
his return in a certain number of days. Every 
road in Armenia is guarded by brutal Turkish 
soldiers, who shoot down Armenians on the least 
pretext ; and we may depend upon it, that this 
wretched state of affairs will continue to exist, 
until some strong national voice is raised, and if 
necessary, some strong national arm is stretched 
forward in defence of a down-trodden race, that 
has on its neck, an iron heel, and over its pros- 
trate body, the flashing sword of a heartless tyrant. 

Destitution Increasing. 

The two most alarming facts of the present situa- 
tion in Asiatic Turkey are the renewals of the mas- 
sacres and the diminution of the relief contributions 
from England and America. 



88 ARMENIA. 

This latter, in view of the daily increasing number 
of those who are utterly dependent upon these con- 
tributions for succor, threatens starvation to those who 
owe their lives to this beneficent relief work, during 
the past few months. From every centre (with the 
exception of Van) where relief work is being carried 
on, comes the same story of the increasing number 
of the destitute, who look to this source of relief 
as the last and only means of sustaining life. It is 
indeed feared by many that the worst has yet to 
come, and that famine and pestilence are all but in- 
evitable during the approaching winter months. 
If agricultural implements and seed are provided for 
those who have survived in the extensive farming 
districts, where the villages have been entirely laid 
waste, it may be reasonably hoped that the reaping 
of the harvest will create a very large measure of 
self-dependence among those who are now obliged 
to rely wholly upon the help sent from England 
and America. If this provision is not made, the 
demand for succor will be as great six months 
hence as to-day. 

As to the renewals of the massacres, perhaps it is 
too much to speak of the massacre at Kills, a fort- 
night ago, under the appellation. If, however, the 
reports of this massacre are trustworthy (and we have 
no reason for discrediting them), it was of a sufficiently 
serious nature to excite the most anxious apprehen- 
sions. But whether a new programme of massacres 
has been drawn up, and we may expect a recurrence 



AEMENIA. 89 

of the bloody scenes of October, November and 
December, remains to be seen. Kills is a town of 
considerable size, situated nearly midway between 
the seaport of Alexandretta and Aleppo. The 
reports of the number of Armenians killed vary 
from 100 to 200, while the number of wounded is 
said to be "some hundreds." No detail has as yet 
reached me here from Aintab, which is only about 
one day distant from Kills, and in the absence of 
such direct and absolutely reliable testimony, we can 
only hope that the full truth will prove to be within 
the limit of the reports already on hand. 

American Missions. 

The only other item of special importance, is the 
issuing by his Imperial Majesty of an order, to 
the Governor of the interior provinces, authorizing 
the immediate expulsion of all the American mis- 
sionaries from their vilayets. This was issued with- 
out any notification whatever to the British or 
American representatives in Constantinople, and it 
was not until three days later, that Sir Philip Currie 
obtained the intelligence of it through the British 
consul in the Moush district, where, it seems, the 
Governor, acting promptly on the authority of his 
master in Constantinople, had ordered the American 
missionaries in Bitlis to leave within forty-eight 
hours. Sir Philip Currie at once demanded the 
immediate cancelling of the order, and that a copy 



90 ARMENIA. 

of the new order issued to each of the Governors 
should be handed to him. Through his prompt and 
energetic action, his demands were executed without 
delay, and, I presume, but few of the missionaries 
are even yet aware of the crisis through which they 
have just passed. In view of the fact that the 
American missionaries are distributing the relief 
forwarded from England through the British gov- 
ernment and its representative in Constantinople, 
Sir Philip Currie, he could justly claim that every 
one of the missionaries was an agent of the British 
government, and, as such, he had an equal right with 
the American representative to demand that they 
should be undisturbed in their sphere of service. 
His declaration that in this matter England and 
America stood together, had a most magical effect 
upon the Sultanas advisers, and doubtless increased 
his Majesty's present forebodings of the possibility 
of an alliance between these two powers. This is 
the spectre which now haunts his dreams, and the 
united action of the two representatives on this 
question seems to have had the effect of bringing 
him into immediate submission to Sir Philip Curriers 
peremptory demands. 

Letters from Relief Corps. 

The following extracts from letters, which I 
have received from Erzeroum and other places, 
will be read with interest, as showing the urgent 



ARMENIA. 91 

necessity for continued relief, and as illustrating the 
manner in which relief measures are now being 
carried out in many centres throughout the interior 
provinces. 

Our work of relieving the destitute goes regu- 
larly on increasing in volume. In this province we 
are now helping over 50,000, and we have rejected 
thousands of applications. As I wrote you before, 
we are not attempting to relieve poverty, we are 
simply trying to keep people alive. Yesterday, a 
young man presented himself to us, who had walked 
ninety miles through dangerous districts, crossing 
two mountain ranges covered with snow. Briefly, 
his statement was this : " There are eighty-five 
Armenian houses in our village, every one of which 
was plundered. A large number were massacred. 
The remainder were saved, by embracing Islam- 
ism. An order from the government, subsequently 
received, permitted us to return to the Church of 
our fathers. Fifteen families, through fear of their 
Turkish neighbors, have not yet renounced their 
recently-adopted faith. The massacre occurred when 
the grain in our fields was ripe. We did not dare to 
go out of our village to reap it. The Kurds came, 
divided the fields among themselves, and harvested 
our crops as if they were their own. The present 
destitution is indescribable. Several have died of 
hunger. My father and brother were killed. I 
escaped as by a miracle. I left my wife and small 
children at home, accepted the risks of the road. 



92 ARMENIA. 

that I might come to lay before you the needs of 
the village, and that of three others, as needy as 



ours." 



The General Distress. 



Early this week, fifty-seven villagers from another 
district arrived. They represented eight villages. 
They came on foot, the whole distance of about 
seventy-five miles. We have been sending relief 
to the villages in question. On asking them their 
errand, they replied : '^ We have come to present our 
sad condition to you, and to appeal to the Governor 
for oxen, agricultural implements, grain seed, but 
especially for protection from the lawless Kurds, 
among whom we dwell. We are most thankful 
for your aid, without which many of us would 
have died of starvation. But now, the Spring has 
come, and we have no seed to sow, and if we had, 
we have no oxen to plow the soil, and if we had, we 
have no plows, and if we had, we have no harrows, 
and if we had all these, we would not dare to go out- 
side our village to our farms, lest the Kurds fall 
upon us ; and if we could sow our fields, we have 
no assurance that we would reap them, and if we 
had, we have no confidence that the Kurds would 
not make a rally upon us next Autumn, and plun- 
der us again. Is there no way to escape from this 
country ? Is there no deliverance ? We are willing 
to sacrifice our homes and lands, yes, and the very 
clothes we have on, if we can only find relief from 



AEMENIA. 93 

this grinding destitution, oppression, anxiety, dan- 
ger and insecurity/^ 

Renewed Massacres. 

On being asked to relate their experiences during 
the massacre, one of the number said : '^ Without any 
warning, the Kurds swooped down upon our village. 
On seeing their approach, all except a few old and 
infirm persons fled to a hill just behind the village. 
Mothers grasped their babes to their bosoms ; fathers 
and brothers and sisters taking^ the hands of the 
younger members of the family, made a rush for 
the hill. Women and children often go barefooted 
about the house, so that many of our number were 
in that condition when the cry, ^ Fly for your lives, 
the Kurds are upon us,' was heard. Many had 
nothing on but their cotton garments. There was 
no time for any preparation. We thought of nothing 
but the safety of our lives. The weather was very 
cold, and the snow was falling. From the hilltop, 
could be heard the crying of suffering women and 
children, by the residents of a neighboring village. 
After the Kurds had been busy six hours, carrying 
away our goods, and driving off our cattle, an officer 
from the local seat of the government, a town six 
miles distant, arrived. He compelled the Kurds 
to vacate the village ; then calling us, and assuring 
us that he had come to protect us, induced us to 
descend. He promised us protection, if we would 



94 AEMENIA. 

deliver up our guns. We protested that we had no 
guns. He pressed his point. We as firmly denied 
that we had weapons of any kind. While this 
interview occurred, the Kurds returned in large 
force, and threatened even the life of the officer. 
He informed us that he could protect us no longer, 
and advised us to fly for our lives. The officer had 
no thought of protecting us, for he could have easily 
controlled the Kurds. It was simply a plan, by 
which he might deprive us of our weapons, if we 
had any, that we might not be able to defend our- 
selves, the order for our massacre having been issued. 
When we saw that there was no hope for protection, 
we immediately scattered, some toward one village, 
some toward another, most of us taking the road to 
a village six miles away. It was then late in the 
evening, cold and snowing. We had to trudge that 
long distance with our wives and children, after night- 
fall. Our sufferings were indescribable. Several 
women aborted, young children died from the ex- 
posure, and very few, if any, escaped without an 
attack of illness. Twelve of our number were 
killed by the Kurds. The body of one old woman 
was afterward found in a ghastly mangled condition. 
For ten days we did not dare to return to our village. 
When we did return, what a scene of desolation 
presented itself to us. Everything portable was 
gone; all live stock of every kind was driven off. 
The very doors of our houses were carried away, 
and in some cases, the houses pulled down, and the 



ARMENIA. 95 

timber taken. They ^ swept our houses clean/ an 
Oriental phrase, expressing the thoroughness with 
which the plundering was done.^^ 

Utter Desolation. 

A man whom we know well, and in whom we have 
perfect confidence, reports that two weeks after the 
pillage, he spent a night in the village, as he was 
travelling through the district, and in the whole 
village, he could not find a cup of any kind, in 
which to take a drink of water. He further reports, 
that as all of their " bedding was gone, the villagers 
had to sleep in hay and straw, and as the doors of 
the houses were carried away, they were exposed 
through the long nights to the bitter wintry blasts. 
All were ill with colds, and many have since died 
from the effects of the exposure. 

A representative of another village, after giving 
similar experiences of attack, flight, massacre, pil- 
lage, exposure, plundering, suffering, and present 
destitution, ends his sad recital in these words : 
" Two of my nephews, grown up young men, with 
wives and children, followed after the Kurds, with 
the hope of recovering some of their sheep. We 
have never seen them since ; the Kurds murdered 
them, and threw their bodies into the river,'' — then 
the poor old man burst into tears. Our hearts bled 
for him, and for the widows and orphans of these 
two brave young men. 



96 ARMENIA. 

Another man said : ^^ They killed my son, who 
left a wife and three children with me," and 
with a choking voice, he added, '^And 1 am 
now old, and have nothing with which to feed 
them.'' 

It is generally thought in these parts, that the 
conduct of the Turkish government in regard to the 
American missionaries, is an attempt to see how 
Europe would regard any measures taken for the 
expulsion of Christian missionaries generally. The 
result can hardly be satisfactory to the Turk. 

The Roman Catholic missionaries are fully alive 
to the meaning of the experinlent, and Monsieur 
Cambon shows that France intends to claim the full 
rights of French citizens, whether clericals or not. 
For many months, an attempt was made to dis- 
tinguish in the massacres between the Armenians of 
the ]^[ational church, and the Catholic Armenians, 
that is, who are in the union with Rome, but this 
distinction could not be observed in Armenia itself. 
A Moslem ruffian at Trebizond exclaimed : " Are 
they not all Giaours (Infidels) alike?'' And no 
satisfactory answer could be given him. 

Foreign Mission Work. 

This attempted distinction did not deceive the 
foreign Catholic missionaries, and their silence was 
not to be purchased by securing the safety of their 
own flocks. In many places they have done their 



ARMENIA. 97 

best for the Christian population, whether they were 
in communion with Rome directly, or not. 

It must not be forgotten that the Christian popu- 
lation of Asia Minor and Syria had sunk into a 
condition of ignorance, which is not remarkable, in 
view of the periodical and repeated massacres and 
plunderings. 

It is quite true, that the Mekitarist congregations 
of Armenians in Vienna and Venice, established by 
men who escaped from Turkey, have accomplished a 
noble work, which has called forth congratulatory 
words from both Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Ruskin. 
But it has mainly been for the education of Ar- 
menian priests, and did not affect the mass of the 
laity. 

The American Board of Missions, some fifty or 
sixty years ago, set itself to remove this ignorance. 
As America could not possibly have any political 
ends to serve by sending missionaries into the 
country, there seems to have come about an under- 
standing and arrangement with English and German 
missionary societies, by which it was agreed that the 
Turkish mission fields should be left almost exclu- 
sively to Americans. 

American Institutions. 

Whatever might be said of England, no one 
would believe that America coveted an inch of 
Turkish territory. American missionaries, as every 

7 



98 ARMENIA. 

one admits, have worked solely for philanthropic, 
educational, and religious ends. 

The American missions have colleges at Harpoot, 
Marsovan, Beyrout, and Aintab. They have 
splendid colleges for girls, at Smyrna, Scutari — on 
the Bosphorus — and in Stamboul. They have 
hospitals at Aintab, Mardin, and Caesarea. They 
have boys' and girls' schools at such centres as 
Broussa, Afana, Trebizond, Sivas, Mosul, Van, and 
other places; and until a few years ago, wherever 
an educated Armenian was met, he had in all likeli- 
hood been educated in one of these missionary 
schools. 

Robert College. 

Last Thursday I spent the evening at E-obert 
College, nine miles from Constantinople, on the 
Bosphorus. This college was founded thirty-three 
years ago, by Mr. Robert, a New York merchant, 
and is to-day one of the greatest powers for good in 
all Asia Minor. It owns magnificent property, 
under imperial charter; has all the equipments of a 
well-furnished American college ; has in its classes 
350 boys and young men from different portions of 
Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Bulgaria, Rou mania, and 
Greece, and its distinguished American President, 
Dr. Washburn, and his assistants, are doing much 
for the rising generation of this part of the world. 

Some years ago, a good deal of opposition was 
encountered by the missionaries on the ground that 



AKMENIA. 99 

their object was to establish rival churches, aud to 
obtain proselytes from the Armenian church. Such 
opposition has long since been overcome by the 
sturdy common sense of the missionaries. 

Light for Asia. 

One hundred and fifty American missionaries, 
many of whom are highly educated, are now cen- 
tres of light throughout Asia Minor and Syria ; 
their influences would do honor to any civilized 
government, and they are everywhere respected 
and trusted by the population, Turkish as well 
as Christian, and by the foreign consuls of every 
part of Asia. 

Many of these are qualified medical men, and the 
value of their medical services meets with an un- 
bounded appreciation in districts where no doctors 
can be found. Although they take no part in poli- 
tics, their instincts are, of course, against anything 
in the nature of rebellion ; and so careful are they 
not to become complicated in the present political 
condition of affairs, that Mr. Green had to abandon 
all connection with the mission board, before he 
published his volume of evidence on the Armenian 
wrongs last year. Taking into consideration these 
facts, it may be asked : " Why should the Turkish 
government wish to get rid of missionaries, Protest- 
ants and Catholics alike ? " 



100 ARMENIA. 

No Conversions Possible. 

There is no question of converting Mohammedans 
to any form of Christian faith, for the penalty of 
such a conversion is immediate death, and neither 
Catholics nor Protestants make any effort iq this 
direction. The reason must be sought in another 
direction. The influence of the missions and mis- 
sionaries has a tendency to elevate the tone of 
morality among the various Christian populations, 
and the education they have given, has enabled 
thousands to become comparatively prosperous. 

As in the case of Bulgaria a score of years ago, 
the prosperity of the Christian portion of the com- 
munity aroused the envy of those who belonged to 
the ruling class and creed ; and, instinctively, the 
Turk recognized that the education given by these 
foreign " Infidels,'' places the Christians at an ad- 
vantage in trade, and even in agriculture. There 
are, indeed, a number of cases, both in the provinces 
and in the capital, where boys and girls have been 
secretly sent by their Moslem parents to mission 
schools to obtain secular education ; but this is 
always attended by grave dangers, and just now, 
Mohammedan authorities are more watchful than 
ever. 

Civilizing Influences. 

It is also felt and admitted by the agents of the 
Sultan's government, that these missions, with their 



AEMENIA. 101 

schools and colleges, their hospitals, their medical 
men and trained nurses, are a symbol of the advance 
of a civilization upon western lines ; and as progress 
in this direction is the sure death-knell to the corrup- 
tion and tyranny of Mohammedanism, the thought 
of it is the waving of a blood-red flag before the 
bellowing Turkish bull. 

Keeping in mind these facts, we can easily trace the 
cause for the recent outbreak against Christian mis- 
sions. Protestant and Catholic missionaries have 
been largely instrumental in turning the light upon 
these sad events in Armenia, during these latter 
months. Newspaper correspondents could be for- 
bidden to travel in the interior; the letters of 
Armenians and other Turkish subjects could be 
ostentatiously examined, and their writers im- 
prisoned ; but these foreign missionaries could not 
be prevented from telling the truth. M. Cambon^s 
notification to the Grand Vizier that if any French 
citizens at Sivas were injured, he would require the 
head of the Yali, shows how far France has prepared 
to protect her missionaries. 

As these, and the American missionaries, know 
more of the Armenian massacres than any other 
bodies of persons, and as they are just now active in 
the distribution of relief among the survivors of the 
massacres, there is not a very sweet taste in the 
mouth of the brute v/ho sits upon the Ottoman 
throne. 



102 AEMENIA. 

A JRecapituIation. 

Certain persons in Europe and America have 
ascribed the dreadful massacres which have taken 
place in Asia Minor to sudden and spontaneous 
outbreaks of Moslem fanaticism. The truth is, 
that while these outbreaks are sudden, they have 
taken place according to a deliberate and precon- 
certed plan. According to the statement of many 
persons — French, English, Canadian, Armenian and 
native, — persons trustworthy and intelligent, who 
were in the places where the massacres occurred, 
and some of whom were witnesses of the horrible 
scenes, the massacres were strictly limited in regard 
to place, time, nationality of the victims, and gener- 
ally in regard to the method of killing and pillaging. 

In Regard to Place. 

With only a few exceptions of consequence, the 
massacres have been confined to the territory of the 
six provinces where reforms were to be instituted. 
When a band of mounted Kurdish and Circassian 
raiders, estimated at from one to three thousand, 
approached the boundary line between the provinces 
of Sivas and Angora, they were met and turned 
back by the local authorities and certain influential 
Mussulmans of the latter province, who told the 
raiders that they had no authority to pass beyond 
the province of Sivas. The only places where 



ARMENIA. 103 

outrages occurred outside of the six provinces, were, 
first, in the flourishing seaboard city of Trebizond ; 
secondly, in Marash, Aintab and Oorfa, and in these 
places, Moslem fanaticism was especially stirred by 
the success of the Armenian mountaineers of 
Zeitoun, in defending themselves against their 
oppressors, and in capturing a small Turkish gar- 
rison ; and finally in Caesarea, and here, as in the 
places just mentioned, the Moslems were excited by 
the nearness of the scenes of massacre, and by the 
reports of the plunder which other Moslems were 
securing. 

In Regard to Time. 

The massacre in Trebizond occurred just before 
the Sultan, after months of every kind of opposition, 
was at last compelled by England, France and 
Russia, to consent to the scheme of reforms, as if to 
warn the powers of Europe that in case they per- 
sisted, the mine was already laid for the destruction 
of the Armenians. In fact, the massacre of the 
Armenians is Turkey's real reply to the demands of 
Europe. From Trebizond, the waves of murder 
and robbery swept on through almost every city 
and town and village in the six provinces where 
relief was promised to the Armenians. When the 
news of the first massacre reached Constantinople, 
a high Turkish official remarked to one of the 
ambassadors, that massacre was like the small-pox, 
they must all have it, but they wouldn't need to 



104 ARMENIA. 

have it the second time ; thus, quietly, if not ma- 
liciously, hinting at what might be expected. Even 
the Sultan, when striving to avoid assent to the 
scheme of reforms, told the ambassadors by way of 
intimidation, that troubles might ensue, and the 
event shows that he knew whereof he spoke. 

The Nationality of the Victims. 

These were almost exclusively Armenians. In 
Trebizond, there is a large Greek population, but 
neither there nor elsewhere, with possibly one or 
two exceptions, have the Greeks been molested. 
Special care has also been taken to avoid injury to 
the subjects of foreign nations, with the idea of 
escaping foreign complications, and the paying of 
indemnities. In Marash, three school buildings 
belonging to the American mission were looted, 
and one building burned, but the houses and the 
girl's college occupied by Americans were not 
touched. In Harpoot, the school buildings and 
houses belonging to the American Mission were 
plundered, and eight buildings burned, but none 
of the Americans were hurt, though shots were 
fired at some of them. In this place, and at 
Marash, had not the fanatical Moslems been re- 
strained by special orders, they would probably 
have killed the Americans; since they regarded 
the Americans in those centres of educational 
and religious work, as the chief agents in en- 



AEMENIA. 105 

lightening and elevating those whom they wished 
to keep as their docile and unambitious sub- 
jects and serfs. 

The Method of Killing and Pillaging. 

With slight exceptions, the method has been to 
kill within a limited period, the largest number of 
Armenians — men of business capacity and intelli- 
gence — and to beggar their families by robbing 
them as far as possible of their property. Hence, 
in almost every place, the massacres have been 
perpetrated during the business hours, when the 
Armenians, in whose hands in almost every plun- 
dered city at least nine-tenths of the trade was con- 
centrated, were in their shops. In several places 
where, on account of fear, the Armenians had shut 
their shops and stores, they were induced by the 
assurances and promises of the authorities to open 
them just before the massacre began. In almost 
every place, the Moslems made a simultaneous 
and sudden attack on the market place, just after 
their noon-day prayers, killing the shop-keepers 
and their clerks in their shops, or when they 
attempted to flee, and then plundering their shops. 
In Diarbekir, not satisfied with the killing and 
plundering, they also burnt the shops ; and in 
Erzeroum and Sivas, where the plunderers were 
many and the booty insufficient, they looted many 
houses. 



106 AEMENIA. 

Soldiers Participate. 

In every place, the perpetrators were the resi- 
dent Moslem population, reinforced in Baiburt 
and vicinity, by the Mohammedan Lazes from the 
southeasterly section of Asia Minor, bordering on 
the Black Sea. In the provinces of Erzeroum, 
Bitlis, Diarbekir, Harpoot, and Sivas, the Turks 
were reinforced by the Kurds, and in the province 
of Sivas, by the Kurds and Circassians, while in 
the city of Erzeroum, the chief perpetrators were 
the Sultan's soldiers and officers, who began the 
dreadful work at the sound of the bugle, and 
desisted for the most part when the bugle signalled 
them to stop. In Harpoot also, the soldiers took 
a prominent part, firing specially on the build- 
ings of the American mission, with Martini- Henry 
rifles and Krupp cannon. A shell from one of 
the cannon burst into the house of the American 
missionary. Dr. Barnum. In most places the kill- 
ing was by the Turks, while the Kurds and Cir- 
cassians were intent on plunder, and generally 
killed only to strike terror, or when they met 
with resistance. The surprised and unarmed Ar- 
menians made little or no resistance, and where 
some of the Armenians, as at Diarbekir and 
Gurun, undertook to defend themselves, they suf- 
fered the more. The killing was done with guns, 
revolvers, swords, pick-axes, clubs, and every con- 
ceivable weapon, and many of the dead were 



ARMENIA. 107 

horribly mangled. The dead were generally 
stripped and dragged to the Armenian Cemetery, 
where the surviving Armenians were compelled to 
bury them in huge trenches, as in Erzeroum, where 
over 500, and in Sivas, where over 800, naked and 
mutilated bodies were covered with earth in one 
grave. 

Blood and Booty Estimates. 

The plundering was perpetrated with the most 
remorseless cruelty. The shops were absolutely 
gutted. In the great city of Sivas, not a spool of 
thread or a yard of cloth was left in the market 
place. Even the doors of some of the plundered 
houses were torn off and carried away. But the 
refinement of cruelty was inflicted upon the inhab- 
itants of hundreds of villages, upon whom the Kurds 
came down like the hordes of Tamerlane, and robbed 
the village of their flocks and herds, stripped them 
of their very clothing, and carried away their bedding, 
cooking utensils, and even the stores of provisions 
which the poor villagers had with infinite care and 
toil laid up for the severities of a rigorous winter. 
Worst of all is the bitter cry that comes from every 
quarter, that the Turks and Kurds seized and carried 
ofi" hundreds of Christian women and girls. 

The numbers killed in the massacres in three 
months' time is estimated at over 50,000 — almost 
entirely the well-to-do, capable, intelligent men of 
the Armenian population in the six to-be-reformed 



1 08 AEMENIA. 

provinces. The amount of property stolen from 
their prostrate subjects by the Moslems is estimated 
at 10,000,000 pounds. The latest estimate is much 
larger. 

The Motive of the Turks. 

This is apparent to the most superficial observer. 
The scheme of reforms devolved, in civil office, 
judgeships and police participation, on Mohamme- 
dans and non-Mohammedans in the six provinces, 
according to the population of each element of the 
locality. This was a bitter pill to those Mohamme- 
dan Turks who had ruled the Armenians with a 
rod of iron for five hundred years ; hence, the reso- 
lution of the Turks was soon taken. It was to 
diminish the number of the Armenians ; first, by 
dealing a vital blow at those most capable of taking 
any part in any scheme of reconstruction ; and 
secondly, by leaving as many as possible to die by 
starvation, exposure, sickness and terror, during 
the rigors of winter. Surely, the arch-fiend could 
not have suggested a more terrible and effectual 
method of crippling and ruining and terrorizing 
the Armenian Christians in the entire six provinces 
concerned. 

Some may wonder how the Turkish authorities 
should be so blind as to destroy such a large part 
of their best tax-paying subjects in Asia Minor. 
And it is, indeed, a wonder. The explanation is, 
that fanatical hatred of those whom they had held 



AEMENIA. 109 

SO long in cruel subjection, and who were, accord- 
ing to the scheme of reform, soon to enjoy some 
form of equality, was stronger than self-interest. 
The thought of the Turk was to make sure of 
the country, and he could conceive of no other 
way than by diminishing the number of the Ar- 
menians, and utterly terrorizing and impoverish- 
ing the survivors. 

Christendom's Apathy, 

But did not the Turk fear the intervention of 
Christian Europe? Not much ; certainly not enough 
to keep them from carrying out an effective, albeit 
diabolical, plan for vengeance. And they had right 
to fear not very much, for did not 400,000,000 of 
Christians witness last year the slaughter in Sassoun 
of some thousands of Armenians, by Turks and 
Kurds, without extorting from the responsible 
Turkish authorities the punishment of a single man 
engaged in the diabolical work ; or even the slightest 
indemnity for the utterly impoverished survivors ? 
Nay, more ; has not the Sultan laughed Europe to 
scorn, by decorating Zekki Pasha, commander of 
the troops engaged in the carnage, and Bahri Pasha, 
the former cruel Governor of Van ? And have not 
the Kurds been peruiitted again to rob the survivors 
of the Sassoun massacre, and even to destroy the 
little huts put up by British charity during the past 
summer ? 



110 AEMENIA. 

Moslem Mendacity. 

But the refinement of the cruelty appears in this ; 
that while the Turkish authorities have thus deliber- 
ately aimed to exterminate as far as possible the 
Armenian element in the six provinces, they have 
attempted to cover up their deeds by the most colossal 
lying and misrepresentation. By the publication of 
mendacious telegrams from provincial authorities, 
they have tried to make Europe and America 
believe that the Armenians have provoked these 
massacres, by attacks on Moslem worshippers, dur- 
ing their hours of prayer, and by other like acts of 
consummate folly. 

It is true that on September 30th, some 400 young 
Armenians, contrary to the entreaties of the Armenian 
patriarch and the orders of the police, attempted to 
take a well-worded petition to the Grand Vizier in 
the main government building in Stamboul, and 
thus precipitated a conflict. It is also true that the 
oppressed mountaineers of Zeitoun captured a small 
garrison of Turkish soldiers. It is likewise true, 
that in several places, small bands of Armenians, 
driven to desperation by the faiku^e of Europe to 
secure the fulfilment of treaty stipulations in behalf 
of their people, have enraged the Turks by revo- 
lutionary attempts, and the Turks have retaliated 
by imprisoning, torturing and killing hundreds of 
Armenians, many of whom were innocent of any 
rebellious acts. 



AEMENIA. Ill 



No Provocation Given. 



The universal testimony of impartial foreign eye- 
witnesses is that, with the above exceptions, the 
Armenians have given no provocation, and that 
almost all the telegrams of the provincial authorities 
accusing the Armenians of provoking the massacres, 
are sheer fabrications of names and dates. If the 
Armenians made attacks, where are the Turkish 
dead ? For, while the Armenian victims are num- 
bered by the thousand, even the authorities have 
mentioned but a few slain among the Turks, and 
those few were killed in only one or two places, and 
in self-defence, at Diarbekir. Is it probable that 
7,000 unarmed and defenceless Armenians, sheep 
among wolves, would attack 23,000 Kurds and 
Turks in the city of Bitlis ? Yet, this was the 
charge of the Turkish authorities — a fitting device 
to cover up their bloody work. Strangest of all, 
he who is at the head of all authority in Turkey, 
and responsible above any and all others for the 
cold-blooded massacre and plundering of the past 
two months, writes a letter to Lord Salisbury and 
pledges his word of honor that the reforms shall 
be carried out to the letter ! The very refine- 
ment of imposition ! And the six great Christian 
powers of Europe still treat this man with infinite 
courtesy and deference; their representatives still 
dine at his table, and some of them still receive 
his decorations ! 



112 AEMENIA. 

The Spirit of Islamism. 

Let it be borne in mind that all these dreadful 
atrocities are the truest and most perfect exhibition 
in this nineteenth century of the spirit of Moham- 
medanism. It is but following the example of the 
Arab hordes of the seventh century in Palestine, 
Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Africa and Europe. 
As then, so now, the alternative of the hated Chris- 
tian, is Islam or death. This alternative has come 
directly to many Armenians in the recent massacres* 
Many souls have gone up as martyrs to the Christian 
faith, while hundreds if not thousands of Armenians 
have accepted circumcision as Mohammedans in 
order to save life and property. Indeed, it is said, 
that the large Armenian village of Husenig, quite 
near to Harpoot itself, from very terror, professed 
to accept Mohammedanism. And the dreadful 
alternative of Islam or death was offered by those 
who have dazzled and deceived Europe with Hatti 
Shereefs and Hatti Humayouns, promulgating civil 
equality and religious liberty for their Christian 
subjects. ]l*^ot only has alternative been offered to 
the Armenian men, but from every quarter comes 
the cry, that hundreds of Armenian women and 
girls have been seized and carried off by the Turks 
and Kurds. 

Governmental Connivance. 

It is a mistake to suppose, as many Europeans 
have done, that the local authorities in the cities 



ARMENIA. 113 

of Trebizond, Erzeroum, Erzinghian, BitHs, Har- 
poot, Arabkir, Sivas, Amasia, Marahsovan, Ma- 
rash^ Aintab, Oorfa, and Caesarea^ could not have 
suppressed the fanatical Moslem mobs and restrained 
the Kurds. The fact is, that the authorities gener- 
ally looked on, while the slaughter and pillage were 
going on, without raising a hand to stop it, save in 
one or two places, and even there the authorities 
did intervene and stop the slaughter, in the limited 
period during which the Moslems were allowed to 
kill and rob, had expired. At Marsovan, the limit 
of time was four hours. Here, as in almost every 
city, the adult male Mussulmans performed their 
noon-day prayers in their mosques, asking God to 
help them in their bloody work, and then rushed 
upon the Christians. 

Within less than four hours, the merciful governor 
of Marsovan, with soldiers and police, interfered 
and stopped the horrid work, but meanwhile one 
hundred and twenty of the leading Armenian traders 
and business men had been killed, and their goods 
stolen. 

Duration of Massacres. 

In several places the slaughter and pillage con- 
tinued from noon to sun-down, or later. At Sivas 
they continued for a whole day, and even afterward 
for several days, some twenty-five Armenians a day 
being killed. In every place, however, the carnage 
was stopped as soon as the authorities made an 
8 



114 ARMENIA. 

earnest effort to do so. Had it not been for the 
intervention of the authorities, after the set time of 
one, two, or three days, the entire Christian popu- 
lation would have been exterminated. And the 
bloody work was stopped, not because the Moslems 
did not want to make a clean sweep of the Christians 
and pillage all their goods, but because those who 
inspired the slaughter thought that one, two or three 
days of killing was about as much as Europe would 
stand at one time. 

Turkish Toleration. 

Nor let it be supposed that the Turks as such, 
hate the Armenians as such. The Armenians have 
been for centuries the most submissive and profitable 
subjects ; and they would still be most loyal, if, in- 
stead of the increasingly oppressive policy of the 
Sultan Abdul Hamid, their lives and honor and 
property had been even tolerably protected. All 
this, many Turks know very well, and regret the 
cruel and utterly impolitic course of the present 
sovereign. The Turk, as a man, has many excellent 
qualities. It is his religion which at certain times 
makes a devil of him. It is the very essence of 
Mohammedanism that the Giaour has no right to 
live save in subjection. While assured of their 
power, the Turks treated the Armenians and other 
Christian subjects, not with equality, but with a 
measure of toleration. It is Europe insisting on 



ARMENIA. 115 

reforms for the Armenians that has enraged the 
Turks against the Armenians. The Turks know 
that in a fair and equal race the Armenians will 
outstrip them in every department of business and 
industry, and they see in any fair scheme of reform, 
the handwriting on the wall for themselves. Save 
for this fear, the Turks would be content to tax and 
fleece the Armenians for an unlimited period, as 
they have done for the past five hundred years. 

Religious Contention. 

If the scheme of reforms had had in view the 
sections of the country where the Greeks predomi- 
nate, the Turks would have killed and robbed the 
Greeks as readily as they have robbed the Armenians. 
Is the war of the Greek revolution forgotten ? Did 
not the Turkish soldiers, in 1822, kill 23,000 Greeks 
on the Island of Scio? Did they not sell some 
47,000, mostly women and children, into slavery ? 
Did they not kill thousands of Catholic Christians 
in the district of the Lebanon, and in Damascus, 
during 1860? Did they not ruthlessly slaughter 
15,000 Bulgarians in 1876? As formerly, so now 
it is not a race fight at all, for the Mohammedan 
Turks cordially affiliate with the Mohammedan Slavs 
(formerly Christians), and with Kurds, Circassians 
and Lazes. It is a religious contention, and the 
Mohammedan Turks are resolved to keep the Chris- 
tian subjects of whatever nationality under foot; 



116 ARMENIA. 

and in case attempts of any kind are made to give 
the Christians real equality and participation in the 
government, the Turks will kill them one by one or 
occasionally in open massacre, unless the powers who 
intervene for the relief of the Christians do it with 
armed force. What is the end to be ? Extermina- 
tion of the Armenian race in Turkish Asia Minor, 
unless a superhuman power smites the oppressor, or 
unless some of the human powers come to the defence 
of the Christians with sufficient force. If the Ar- 
menians are to be left as they are, it is a thousand 
pities that Europe ever mentioned them in the treaty 
of Berlin or subsequently ; and to trust reforms in 
behalf of the Armenians to those who have devoted 
six months' time to killing and robbing them, is 
simply to abandon the Armenians to destruction, 
and to put the seal of Christian nations to the 
bloody work. 

The Latest Acts of the Great Assassin and 
his Followers. 

Kecent developments of the Sultan may indicate, 
let us hope, the beginning of the end of his corrupt 
government in Turkey. During the latter week of 
August, 1896, a riot occurred in the city of Constan- 
tinople, contradictory reports of which were sent out 
to the world. An effort was made by the Turkish 
government to impress the civilized world that the 
Armenians were responsible for the terrible affair. 



ARMENIA. 117 

The despatches which came to America, informed 
uSj that a gang of desperate Armenians made an 
attack upon the Ottoman Bank, and was hokling it, 
after having destroyed valuable property. These 
men were captured, not killed, and instead of being 
put to death, were quietly transported out of the city, 
and released. The Turkish press after this lenient 
treatment of these outlaws, applauded the clemency 
of the Turkish officials. Further information soon 
came to us, that these supposed Armenians were in 
a state of desperation, and this bold act of theirs, 
was merely performed to attract the attention of the 
Powers to the Armenian Question, thereby hoping to 
bring about a settlement. But now, it seems that 
these ^^ desperadoes '^ were not Armenians at all, but 
Turks in the government employ. They were ac- 
cording to the best authority '^agents provocateurs,^^ 
deliberately employed by the city police, to do as 
they did, so that discredit might be brought upon the 
Armenians, and thus give to the Turkish government 
an excuse for repeating in the streets of Constanti- 
nople the terrible horrors that had been enacted in 
the interior towns and villages. The Satanic plot 
worked well. The bank was raided, an outcry was 
raised against the Armenians, and nearly ten thou- 
sand men, women and children were beaten and shot 
to death in cold blood, with every conceivable acces- 
sory of torture and outrage. At this writing, the 
powers appear to be aroused, and English and other 
men-of-war are hastening toward Turkish waters, 



118 AEMENIA. 

and we are tempted to hope against hope, that the 
despotism of Islam is gasping its last breath. 

A suggestive correspondence between one of the 
religions organizations in America and the Sultan of 
Turkey, with reference to the massacre of the Ar- 
menians, has just been made public. This corres- 
pondence consists of a petition to the Sultan by the 
Evangelical Alliance for the United States, in behalf 
of the persecuted Christians in Turkey, and the 
response of the assassin through his accredited repre- 
sentative to this country. This petition to the Sultan 
was drawn up late last spring ; it was sent, after 
being handsomely engrossed on heavy parchment, 
to the State Department at Washington, with the 
request that it be sent to Constantinople. For 
months the authors of this paper waited for a reply, 
but no word of its arrival at its destination was 
learned until a few days ago, when William E. 
Dodge, the President of the Alliance, found a reply 
from the Turkish Minister on his return from Europe. 
We give our readers the petition of the Alliance, 
bearing date of March 26th, 1896. It is as follows : 

" His Imperial Majesty the Sultan : — 

^' By direction of the Evangelical Alliance for the 
United States, which represents members of many 
churches and is in accord with the convictions of 
millions of American Christians, and which has 
among its chief objects, the promoting of religious 



ARMENIA. 119 

liberty and the opposing of religious persecution, we 
respectfully memorialize Your Imperial Majesty with 
regard to freedom of conscience and worship, and 
the persecutions of Christians within your Empire. 

" We take the welcome opportunity of assuring 
Your Majesty that we are true well-wishers of 
both yourself, and your dominion. We crave for 
you, and for all rulers of nations, the blessing 
which God gives only to those who "do justly and 
love mercy, and walk humbly before Him.'' More 
than a year ago, there came to us tidings of sore 
religious persecution in Turkey. But we delayed 
our remonstrance, hoping that the alleged facts 
might prove to be overstated. We remembered the 
solemn pledges of religious toleration which had 
been written in the treaties of your Government, 
and proclaimed to your people and the world in 
Imperial decrees. We called to mind the justly 
famous Hatti Humayoun, of 1856, which is still in 
full force, with the sacred guarantees of both civic 
and religious rights of Your Majesty's non-Mussul- 
man subjects. We recollected the glorious words 
put therein by his Imperial Majesty Sultan Abdul- 
Medjik : ^ As all forms of religion are and shall be 
fully professed in my dominion, so no subject of my 
Empire shall be hindered in the exercise of the 
religion he professes, nor shall he be in any way 
annoyed on this account.' 

"We bore in mind the treaty of July, 1878, 
known as the Berlin treaty, which not only con- 



120 ARMENIA. 

firmed the rights of religious liberty, and the exer- 
cise of all forms of religion in every part of the 
Ottoman Empire, but also declared, ^ The Sublime 
Porte undertakes to carry out without further delay, 
the reforms demanded by local requirements in the 
provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guar- 
antee their security against the Circassians and the 
Kurds.^ 

" How could we believe in the face of these 
enactments and Imperial declarations, that religious 
persecutions had become, within Your Majesty's 
Empire, a wide-extended and persistent reality ? 
But the painful evidence has accumulated, and has 
been substantiated, until we can be no longer silent. 
By the personal witness of victims, and by the 
written testimony of observers, whom we know to 
be competent and truthful, the terrible facts have 
come before us. 

^' First. — We respectfully submit, that within the 
last eighteen months, multitudes of the unoffending 
Christian subjects of Your Majesty's government 
have been massacred. Thousands of those who 
trusted in your protection and obeyed your laws 
have been foully murdered ; and under such circum- 
stances as force us to the reluctant conclusion that 
the attack was inspired by religious hatred. By 
the fact that the massacres have been confined to 
Christians, and by the further fact that again and 
again the alternative openly offered has been an 
escape from torture and death by an abjuring of the 



ARMENIA. 121 

Christian faith, we are compelled to believe that the 
hostile motive has been essentially religious. 

^^ Second. — Additional proof that religious free- 
dom in Your Majesty ^s Empire has been recently 
and now is unlawfully assailed, is found in the fact, 
that in hundreds of instances Christian parents have 
been violently compelled to pronounce a formula 
which is held to commit irrevocably both them- 
selves and their children to a faith which is against 
their conscientious desire and belief. Christian men 
have been subjected by physical force to that circum- 
cision which in Your Majesty's domain is regarded 
as complete proof that a man is not a Christian. 

" Third. — Hundreds of Christian churches, mon- 
asteries and schools, have been plundered and de- 
molished, and utmost pains have been taken to 
destroy the sacred Christian books, and to dishonor 
that Cross, which Christians regard as the very 
emblem of their faith. In this respect also, the 
destruction has been as methodical as resistless. 

'^ Fourth. — Thousands of Christian women have 
been outraged and thousands of Christian children 
slain by the same persons who have murdered 
Christian men, forced other Christian men to for- 
swear Christianity and receive circumcision, and 
laid waste Christian churches, monasteries, and 
schools. It is unmistakably significant, that for 
this supreme profanation and cruelty as for the 
other cited crimes against religious freedom, Chris- 
tians alone have been selected as victims. 



122 ARMENIA. 

"In short, and from first to last, the outrages 
fall manifestly within the mode and spirit of that 
religious persecution which is wholly forbidden 
by the law of Your Majesty's Empire. 

" And here, permit us to assure your Imperial 
Majesty that as our American Missionaries in 
your dominion have always been your sincere 
well-wishers, and as they have always exercised 
their influence in favor of loyalty, and against 
disloyalty, so they have found the overwhelming 
majority of your Christian subjects, thoroughly 
faithful to their sovereign and to his just author- 
ity. Whatever may have been the unlawful designs 
and acts of a very few restless agitators, it is certain 
that the many thousands on whom woe is already 
fallen, have been entirely innocent in both thought 
and deed. Therefore, in the name of those Chris- 
tians in the United States, whom we represent, and 
in the confidence that we also speak the views of 
those Christians represented by our sister Evan- 
gelical Alliances in Great Britain, France, Belgium, 
Switzerland, Germany, the ISTetherlands, Denmark, 
Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Syria, South Africa, 
Japan, China, and New South Wales, we respect- 
fully ask of Your Majesty, that the existing and 
sacred guarantees of religious freedom in Turkey, 
shall straightway be fulfilled, and henceforth be 
upheld. Candor and sincerity toward Your Majesty 
constrains us to say with all solemnity and earnest- 
ness, that unless this, our petition is granted, and per- 



ARMENIA. 123 

secutions are brought to an end, and the Christians in 
Turkey are granted life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness, we shall leave no effort untried to unite 
all the liberty-loving people of the civilized world, in 
urging the Governments to avenge the wrongs and 
sufferings of the Christians within your Empire. 

" In closing, we renew our declaration of sincere 
regard for Your Majesty's personal welfare, and for 
the rightful peace and prosperity of your throne and 
kingdom. We declare to you, that if similar perse- 
cutions should anywhere ar.ise against Mussulmans 
we would seek their protection as earnestly as in the 
present instance we seek the protection of the Chris- 
tians. In Your Majesty's behalf we remember that 
the same God who has declared that He will over- 
throw those who commit violence and oppression, 
has freely promised to uphold those who rale in 
righteousness and love. May He direct Your 
Majesty in all your ways. 

"William E. Dodge, President''^ 

The belated reply of the Porte was sent in French, 
a translation of which is as follows : 

Imperial Legation of Turkey, 

Washington, August 4, 1896. 



a O^ 



Sir : I have received to-day the following de- 
spatch, dated July 19, 1896, from His Excellency 



124 ARMENIA. 

Tewfik Pacha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of His 
Imperial Majesty the Sultao, in answer to the letter 
of March 26, 1896, which the Evaogelical Alliance 
for the United States of America has caused to be 
sent to His Imperial Majesty : 

" ' The Evangelical Alliance for the United States 
of America has sent to His Imperial Majesty the 
Sultan, our august master, a letter, a copy of which is 
herewith enclosed, concerning the pretended outrages 
against the liberty of conscience and the persecutions 
of Christians in certain ^)rovinces of the Empire. 

'As you will perceive by perusing this piece of 
writing the statements therein made, drawn from 
hostile sources, do not conform to the truth. Indeed, 
all impartial persons are unanimous in recognizing 
that since the reign of the Sultan Osman I, the 
founder of the illustrious Imperial dynasty, up to 
our day, the Christians of Turkey have been treated 
in the same manner as the other subjects of the 
Empire, and that the Imperial Government, has 
protected their property, their lives, and their honor, 
and has assured them, full and entire liberty of con- 
science. This principle, sanctioned by the Imperial 
Firman, which the Sultan Orkahn delivered to his 
brother, when he had appointed him. Commander- 
in-chief of the Imperial Army, has been later on, 
confirmed in a more precise manner by his illustrious 
successors. It can be seen, therefore, how complete 
the security is which the Christians of Turkey en- 
joyed, since the foundation of the Empire. Further- 



AEMENIA. 125 

more, the state of prosperity in which the latter find 
themselves, is an actual proof that the Imperial 
Government has assured them, as well as to its other 
subjects, all the well-being which they might desire ; 
that the complaints of those among them, who 
pretend to be oppressed, are, absolutely without 
foundation, and that the latter have recourse to this 
expedient, in order to justify their seditious attitude. 
While the inhabitants of our land are thus at liberty 
to profess their religion, the other nations, profiting 
by the state of barbarism of African people, that 
have not yet been reached by civilization, force them 
to embrace Christianity, violating thus their liberty 
of conscience. Again, nobody will deny that a great 
number of Mussulmans of other countries, see them- 
selves forced to emigrate to Turkey, in order to have 
their honor, their lives, and their property protected 
against the arbitrary and vexatious procedure which 
they suffer at the hands of the Christians, and to 
seek a refuge with the Khalifat. 

^I pray you to inform me when this letter is 
received, and permit me to assure you of my great 

respect.' 

" Maveoyeni. 



"To the President of the Evangelical Alliance 
for the United States of America, New York.' 



;; 



The mendacity of this, the latest official declaration 
of the Turkish government upon its attitude toward 



126 ARMENIA. 

the Christian subjects within its domainSj is so appar- 
ent, that it is hardly necessary to give a formal denial 
of it; but the words of Rev. Dr. Josiah Strong, 
General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance for 
the United States, are so forceful, that we reproduce 
them : — 

'^ The official reply of the Sultan is a superlative 
illustration of consummate impudence and men- 
dacity. The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs 
regards the fact that the Turkish government has 
laid itself under obligations to protect its Christian 
subjects, a sufficient proof that they have enjoyed 
full and entire liberty of conscience, and adds : It 
can be seen, therefore, how complete the security is 
which the Christians in Turkey enjoyed since the 
foundation of the Empire. It would be impossible 
to say," continued Dr. Strong, '' how many of the 
Christian subjects of the Turk have been massacred 
since Osman I ; but making no account of any 
number less than ten thousand at a time, there have 
been a hundred and fifty-three thousand slaughtered 
since 1822, as follows: In 1822, fifty thousand 
Greeks; in 1850, ten thousand Nestorians and 
Armenians; in 1860, eleven thousand Maranites 
and Syrians; in 1876, ten thousand Bulgarians; 
in 1894, twelve thousand Armenians; in 1895-96, 
sixty thousand Armenians. The way in which 
the Imperial government has protected their prop- 
erty, their lives and their homes, is illustrated by 
estimates of the recent massacres believed to be 



ARMENIA. 127 

authentic : over sixty thousand Armenians have 
been murdered, their homes plundered, leaving over 
three hundred thousand in destitution, of whom 
about forty thousand are widows, some twenty 
thousand dishonored maidens, and one hundred 
and twenty thousand fatherless children. This state 
of prosperity in which they find themselves in the 
words of the letter, illustrates the kind of well-being 
that the Turkish government has secured for them. 
If the subject were not so hideous, we might suppose 
that the Turkish Minister were indulging himself 
in humor. The Evangelical Alliance suffers a sense 
of shame and indignation that the nations represent- 
ing Protestant, Roman Catholic or Greek Chris- 
tianity, should, with ample knowledge of the facts, 
have stood by and permitted these atrocities at the 
hand of the great assassin." 

An Intelligent Armenian Refugee in America 
Interviewed. 

The hand of persecution is driving many Ar- 
menians from Turkey. While I was in Constan- 
tinople a French vessel dropped anchor in the 
Bosphorus, containing three hundred Armenian 
refugees in the steerage, who boarded the ship at 
one of the Asiatic ports. They fled the country to 
save their lives; and hoped to make France their 
future home. The Sultan, on learning that they 
had reached the waters before his Capital, sent an 



128 ARMENIA. 

order for them to leave the vessel and deliver 
themselves into his hands. The command was 
emphasized by the presence of his soldiers on the 
pier ; and, with the greatest interest, I watched 
these uniformed Turks pacing up and down, within 
a few feet of the terror-stricken men, women and 
children, on board the ship. During the same week 
hundreds of Armenians were imprisoned in Con- 
stantinople without just provocation ; and we felt 
that there could be only one fate for these poor 
creatures who were fleeing for their lives, if they 
fell into the hands of the Sultan. For several days 
their lives seemed to treaible in the balances ; but, 
at last, if we were correctly informed, the heroism 
of the French Captain saved them from the cruelty 
of the Turkish government. He was reported to 
have positively refused to deliver up these passengers 
on the command of his Imperial Majesty, unless a 
written order to this effect was received from the 
French Consul in Constantinople. These Armenians 
were under a French flag ; they were booked for 
Marseilles ; and the commander of the vessel took 
the position that they could not be forcibly removed 
unless a representative of the French Republic so 
ordered. It was with joy that we learned that 
the vessel sailed out of the Bosphorus toward the 
Mediterranean with all these refugees on board. 

Among the Armenians who have lately left their 
native land because of the massacres, is a scholarly 
gentleman, with whom I have had repeated con- 



ARMENIA. 129 

versations, while I was preparing the last pages of 
this book. This cultured Armenian, Mr. Strapon 
Romly, driven out of his country by Turkish atroci- 
ties, spent a while in France, and then sailed to 
America. Just before leaving home his brother 
was shot, his house was burned and many of his 
neighbors were massacred. His knowledge of seven 
tongues enabled him to fill several important govern- 
mental offices in Turkey ; for years he has been 
intimately acquainted with the social, commercial 
and political affairs of the country ; and he served 
as an official interpreter during the Russo-Turkish 
war of 1877-78. He held several prominent literary 
positions in his native land ; is the author of a work 
on Armenian habits and customs ; and is a member 
of the National Geographic Society, Washington, 
D. C. Just as this work was going to press, I was 
visited by Mr. Romly ; and desiring to get the calm 
opinion of an intelligent and conservative Armenian 
on the " Eastern Question,'^ I, American-like, inter- 
viewed him ; and his answers to several leading ques- 
tions bearing on the government under which he 
lived during so many perilous years, will, doubtless, 
be of interest to the readers. 

Question I. What is your opinion of the con- 
duct of the European Powers toward Armenia ? 

Answer : " The conduct of the European Powers 
toward Armenia is both shameful and unaccount- 
able. The much talked-of ^ European concert ' 
has not helped matters ; but seemingly it was a 
9 



130 AEMENIA. 

secret agreement to perpetuate misrule and massa- 
cres not only in Armenia, but throughout the 
dominion of the Turkish Empire. I do not think, 
of course, that any European Power will admit that 
this is true, but look at the fruit, and then judge the 
character of the tree thereby. If the European 
Powers had half the regard for Christianity that the 
Mohammedans have for their religious principles, 
their conduct would not have been a disgrace, not 
only to their religion but also to the civilization 
of this enlightened age. I do not believe that 
the Sultan and his followers would have remained 
quiet, if Mohammedanism had been subjected to 
similar treatment. In the first place, Armenians 
have been Christians for many centuries ; and con- 
sidering how heroically they have stood their 
ground, as a Christian nation, during all these 
years, they deserve the sympathy and protection 
of stronger Christian people. But, aside from 
this, they have serious claims upon the Powers, 
apart from religious kinship, growing out of 
international treaties, which they have allowed 
to be shamefully ignored. Let me say that it 
is unfair for the European Powers to mix in 
Turkish affairs, unless they are sincere in their 
assurances, and unless they mean to act when 
crises arise, for which they are largely respon- 
sible. The Armenians have been misled by false 
hopes ; and it is a thousand pities that the 
Powers ever interfered, if they continue their 



ARMENIA. 131 

ruinous policy. Pursuing their present course is 
only to excite the hatred and fanaticism of the 
Turks; and consequently, bring additional troubles 
upon the victims of their malice. I tell you that 
the present attitude of the so-called European 
Powers is ruinous to Armenia and is an encour- 
agement to the Turk to murder and plunder at 
his will. Far better would it have been if Europe 
had kept hands off; and unless she takes a firm 
stand now, it will soon be too late forever." 

Question II. What is the motive of the Turks 
in persecuting their best citizens? 

Answer : " This is a question that has greatly 
puzzled me. The Armenians are more intelligent, 
wealthy and energetic than the Turks, and without 
them I cannot tell what would become of the other 
subjects of the Sultan in Eastern Turkey. By their 
brains and honest toil, the Armenians prove to be a 
great blessing to the country, and if they were gone, 
who would pay the taxes, who would embellish the 
Turkish literature, who would keep up trade ? The 
question might be asked, ^ What was the motive of 
the Turks in persecuting the Bulgarians before the 
year 1878?' This was a mystery to the world; 
but they are not so necessary to the Turks as the 
Armenians are. The Turks deny the statements I 
make about the influence of the Armenians in Tur- 
key ; but while they had the Bulgarians under their 
rule, the expression, ^As block-headed as a Bulgarian,' 
was proverbial \^ the country. Russia was more 



132 AEMENIA. 

appreciative of them, and now no one calls them 
^ block-headed/ who is acquainted with their pro- 
gressive lives. I sometimes think that the Turks 
are puzzled themselves to understand their own 
motives in persecuting the Armenians. I am sure 
that they detest the influence of Europe in Turkey, 
and the more the Europeans play with the question 
without taking a decisive stand, the worse it will be 
for the Armenians. The Turk must take care of 
his turban, and so long as outside powers give to 
these people a quasi friendship, and seem to help 
them to become more influential and prominent in 
the country, the more the Sultan and his followers 
will persecute them. If possible, the Mohammedan 
will not allow any other religionist to become more 
powerful in Turkey than he is. In the last analysis 
I think that you will find that the motive is partly 
religious and partly political." 

Question III. What is the relation of Russia to 
Turkey? 

Answer : " This relation is more intimate and 
powerful than the outside world seems to think. 
Bulgaria is next door to Constantinople ; and it is 
important that this door be guarded. Let the people 
in England and America speak about humanity ; 
but Russia don't care a fig for any such thing. 
Politics and humanity are two different things with 
them ; but with the Turks, politics and religion are 
inseparable. The Sultan is the head of Moham- 
medanism, as well as the ruler of the empire. 



ARMENIA. 133 

When both his religion and his state are in danger, 
what Turk cares for the honor of womanhood or 
the blood of Christians ! I say, if only one of the 
great Powers had as much love for Christianity as 
the Turks have for Mohammedanism, Armenian 
butchery would not have continued for a fortnight. 
These massacres would have been stopped either by 
the guns from the Dardanelles or by the hordes 
from down the slopes of the Caucasian Mountains. 
The Turks may neglect their gun-boats in the 
waters of the Dardanelles ; but Russia will not allow 
anything to harm them. The American Bancroft and 
the British men-of-war may cast anchor under the 
shadow of the palace of the Sultan, and may enjoy 
themselves discussing the question of humanity and 
the European Concert ; but all this is poor comfort 
for the panic-stricken Armenians in their houses and 
the American churches, who mourn over their dead 
and await their own massacre.^' 

Question lY. What will the end be ? 

Answer : ^^ It seems to me that eventually the 
European Powers must respect their international 
oath. A few years ago, western nations knew little 
or nothing about the Armenians. The Turks have 
done a good thing in not only bringing the so-called 
^ Eastern Question ^ into prominence ; but in intro- 
ducing Armenia and the Armenians to the world. 
The blood of these men, women and children is 
crying from the dust, and surely the ears of all 
nations cannot be stopped to it. As long as there is 



134 ARMENIA. 

a score of these heroic people left, the story will be 
told. By man came woe, and by man God will 
execute justice. Up to this time there has been far 
too much sentiment. This will not impress the Turk 
and cannot feed the starving Armenian. We do not 
want ^ presentations ' by the Baucroft, and we have 
had enough beautiful resolutions. If Armenians are 
saved from extermination, vigorous methods must 
be adopted and forcefully executed. From the his- 
tory of former treaties, what reason has the Sultan 
to respect the Woice' of any nation. Under some 
circumstances, the ^ voice ^ of a thundering cannonade 
is the only effectual thing ! But I still hope that 
out of all of this chaos and cruelty there will come, 
by the guidance of more than human wisdom, peace 
and prosperity." 

Question V. Is colonization for the Armenians 
practicable ? 

Answer : ^' This should be the last resort, and it 
can only be done by the intervention of the ^ Powers.' 
To allow this would be humiliating to those nations 
that pledged protection to Armenia in their own 
country. This would be a triumph for Turkey, for 
it would be a confession that the combined Christian 
nations could not defend the Armenians in Asia 
Minor. There are many difficulties in the way of 
the colonization scheme. Remember there are no 
railroads, and millions must come thousands of miles 
over the roughest country. Many of those who are 
able are leaving the country ; but what about the 



ARMENIA. 135 

numberless widows and orphans who are absolutely 
helpless? Armenia is not a village, but a great 
country, extending over many miles and containing 
a great population. Is it possible to colonize a whole 
nation who are generally land owners ? Who will 
buy the property owned by these Armenians ? Will 
the Turks ? ! Will the ' Powers ? ! ' The Armenians 
are attached to their land, where their fathers have 
lived through all these centuries. Why should they 
be driven out of their homes ? Instead of compelling 
them to leave their country, will it not be far better 
to teach Turks to behave themselves and hear the 
voice of civilization, if not the guns of iron-clads ? 
I would like to see the Turks converted, and know 
that there is a just God in the heavens, and feel that 
that ' one touch of nature makes us all akin ; ' but 
as this will evidently be a very slow process, in the 
meantime, Armenians must be protected in Armenia, 
or this noble people will be w^iped off of the face of 
the earth." 

It is to be hoped that the earnest words of Mr. 
Romly, spoken from the pulpit and platform in 
America may bring the Armenian question intelli- 
gently before our people ; and may his presence with 
us result in a great blessing to the Armenian cause. 



We close the first part of this volume with an 
expression of the hope that the present ruler of 



136 ARMENIA. 

Turkey, who has proven himself to be the incarna- 
tion of hypocrisy, cruelty and mendacity, will be 
dethroned by the Powers of Europe, and that there 
may be a complete revolution of affairs, for the 
better, in the Ottoman Empire. 



II. 



PAST HISTORY, 



n. 

PAST HISTORY, 



AEMENIA is a mountainous country, abounding 
in rivers and lakes ; and its physical features 
have had great influence upon the fortune of its in- 
habitants. As the surface of the land was ridged by 
many mountains, there were isolated regions, which 
fact favored the growth of tribal life. Each tribe 
struggled to be independent. Another fact to be 
remembered is that Armenia, on account of its loca- 
tion, has been trampled into dust both by devasta- 
ting armies and by migrating hordes. 

Primitive History. 

The early history of Armenia is given almost in an 
unbroken narrative by an Armenian historian of the 
fifth century (A. D.). He connects the origin of the 
nation with the building of Babel and the distribu- 
tion of races; and points out that the Armenians be- 
long to the Japhetic branch of the human family. 



140 AEMENIA. 

Haig, the chief of the Armenians, defeated Mm- 
rod of the Hebrew records. Our sketch of Arme- 
nian history does not peraiit us to enter into a detailed 
account of events which took place during remote 
ages. Some links of the historical chain are missing ; 
therefore, leaving to the scientist and explorer the 
consideration of this epoch, we will take up some 
figures and events which are based upon reliable 
historical records. 

Assyria, at the height of its power, included Baby- 
lonia, Mesopotamia, Media, Syria, Phoenicia, a large 
part of Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt. Armenian 
history and Assyrian inscriptions, in cuneiform char- 
acters, tell us that the Armenians were fighting for 
the independence of their political life against the 
Assyrians, who attacked Armenia towards the 12th 
century. No sooner had the Assyrians, after sub- 
duing the country, departed into the seat of the 
empire, than the Armenians revolted. This same 
spirit of independence is plainly seen in the As- 
syrian inscriptions of Khorsabad, a small village 
near Mosal. 

The following Armenian narrative confirms what 
was said above. The two sons of the Assyrian 
monarch, Sennacherib, having slain their father, took 
refuge in the mountains of Armenia (680). If the 
Assyrians had any political influence in that country, 
neither would the sons have ventured to flee there, 
nor would the Armenian prince have accepted them 
cordially. 



ARMENIA. 141 

In the seventh century the Assyrian empire was 
overthrown by the Median conqueror Cyaxares and 
two allies, Nabopolassar, the Babylonian prince, and 
Barayr, the Armenian prince. Barayr was the first 
Armenian king. 

Tigranes I, was the strongest king of the ruling 
dynasty and was famous for his wisdom and bravery. 
Cyrus the Great, endeavored to make him his ally ; 
and indeed, Tigranes I was with the Persian king 
in wars against Astyages (558), Croesus (550), and 
Belshazzar (king of Babylon) (538). The Hebrew 
prophet Jeremiah alludes to the participation of 
Armenians in the downfall of Babylon in his book 
LI, 27. 

The successors of Tigranes I, fought for their 
liberty against the Persians who were growing 
stronger and stronger. The wedge-shaped inscrip- 
tion graven by the order of Darius Hystaspes (521- 
486) upon a rock near Karnak, reveals the insuffi- 
ciency of the great king's means in subduing the 
whole of Armenia. The part that submitted to his 
power was one out of twenty satrapies. 

Our limited space does not allow us to reproduce 
here the picture of Armenian household life in the 
fifth century by Xenophon in his Anabasis. 

Vahe, the last king of this dynasty, was an ally 
of the great king Darius, against the common enemy 
Alexander the Great. With his death his kingdom 
was overthrown (330). 



142 AKMENIA. 

Armenia was under the Macedonian power ; and 
after the great war at Ipsus (301) came under the 
kings of the era of the Seleucidae, who usually 
appointed Armenian princes as governors of Ar- 
menia. 

Artaxias, one of these Armenian governors, avail- 
ing himself of the defeat of Antiochus the Great, 
declared himself king, independent of the Seleucidae. 
The new king formed an alliance with the Romans. 
It was he who built the towm Ardashab on the left 
border of Arax (189). An Armenian narrative tells 
us the great Carthagenian general, Hannibal, stayed 
for some time in the palace of this king. 

The Kingdom of Arsacid Dynasty. 

The Parthians, availing themselves of the growing 
weakness of the Seleucidae and of the Bactrians' civil 
struggles, began to extend their territory ; and they 
soon founded an extensive empire. 

Mithridates I, the great king of the Parthians, 
established his brother Valarsases in Armenia, who 
became the founder of the Arsacid kingdom (149). 

Instead of giving the history of this strong dynasty 
in chronological order and detail, we will take up the 
following important events of the epoch. 

(1). The re-organization of the government. 

(2). The wars of Tigranes II and Mithridates 
against the Romans. 



ARMENIA. 143 

(3). The political revolution in Persia and its 
consequences in Armenia. 

(4). Christianity as the national religion of the 
Armenians. 

(5). The golden age of Armenian literature. 

/. The Re-organization of the Government. 

The physical features of Armenia favored the 
division of the country into separate and isolated 
regions. Armenian princes, each in his own district, 
enjoyed a sort of independence. 

Valarsases, the first Arsacid king, regarded this 
order of things — the strength of Armenian nobles 
and weakness of kingly power — very dangerous to 
central power. His first thought was to destroy it ; 
but considering that this order had been, from time 
immemorial, established in the section, he resolved 
to reach his end by indirect means. He gave the 
grandees high honors and offices — duties which they 
were to discharge at his court with the view of 
strengthening the political union of the country. 

This same policy was pursued by his son and 
successor Arkac I. 

The misfortune was, that before the new order was 
placed on a firm foundation, the ambitious kings be- 
gan to extend their kingdoms at the expense of the 
surrounding powers. It is true that the conquests 
of Ardashes I, and Tigranes II form a glorious page 
in Armenian history ; but since the centralization of 



144 AEMENIA. 

power — a step taken by their immediate predecessors 
— was not completed, the next kings were unable to 
keep under their submission the new possessions. 

II. The Wars of Tigranes II and Mithridates 
Against the Romans. 

Tigranes II was the son of Ardashes I. He 
marched against, and defeated the Greeks who had 
revolted, having heard of the death of his father. 
Availing himself of the civil war of the Seleucidae, 
he added Syria to his empire (85-63), and subdued 
Phoenicia and Palestine. Now he was at the height 
of his power and he was named king of kings. 
Plutarch says that four dethroned kings served him. 

Mithridates, the king of Pontus, after subduing 
Cappadocia and Bithynia with the assistance of Ti- 
granes I, his ally, invaded Greece, which was sub- 
dued. Rome sent Sylla against the invader and 
the Roman general defeated Mithridates who was 
obliged to give back the possessions he had taken 
(88-86). 

In the second war (75) Mithridates was defeated 
by Lucullus ; he fled to Armenia ; and the Roman 
general sent ambassadors to the Armenian king to 
hand over the defeated king. Lucullus, on the 
refusal of what he had proposed, marched against 
the Armenians and besieged Digranakerd, in which 
the king's treasure was kept. Tigranes hastened to 
meet the enemy ; but the proud king seeing the 



ARMENIA. 145 

small force of the Romans, did not make ample prep- 
aration to take the field. The Roman general, by a 
sudden attack, put the Armenians in disorder ; the 
town was taken by the treacherous conduct of the 
Greeks, and afterwards the victorious general marched 
upon Artashab, another rich town defended by Tigra- 
nes himself. A sanguinary fight took place ; both 
sides suffered great losses and at last Lucullus retired 
to Mesopotamia. At this time Mithridates and Ti- 
granes began to recover their former possessions. 
The soldiers of Lucullus soon revolted against him, 
having refused to go upon the field of battle. 

Rome hearing of this reverse, sent the famous 
general Pompey, who defeated the army of Mithri- 
dates; and the king of Pontus took refuge in the 
mountains of Caucasus, where he gathered a vast 
army with the purpose of invading Italy as a new 
Hannibal ; but he was betrayed by his son, Parnases. 
The great king died by self-administered poison, in 
order not to fall alive into the hands of his enemy 
(64). Pompey, after his glorious victory, hastened 
to enter into Armenia; and the son of Tigranes, 
having revolted against his father, united with the 
Romans, leading them into his fatherland. The 
king finding himself surrounded on every side by 
enemies concluded a peace with Pompey. The 
Romans took possession of Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Cilicia, Syria and Phoenicia. Some provinces of 
lesser Armenia were formed into small States under 
the patronage of the Romans (64). 
10 



146 ARMENIA. 

The policy of the Koman emperors was to have 
the Armenians as their allies, whose kingdom they 
regarded as a strong barrier on the eastern frontier 
of the empire against the attacks of the Parthians and 
other people. Unfortunately, Theodosius the Great, 
agreed with the Persians to divide Armenia among 
themselves (390 A. D.). This was a short-sighted 
policy ; and it was after the partition of Armenia 
that the Seljac Turks invaded the Byzantine empire. 

III. Political Revolution in Persia and its 
Consequences in Armenia. 

The Parthian dynasty of the Persian kingdom 
gave rise to many internal difficulties; and the 
Persians began to think of re-establishing the old 
Persian empire. The Sassanid Ardashir, a Persian 
prince, revolted against Ardaran, the Persian king 
of the Parthian dynasty; Ardashir defeated the Par- 
thians in three wars ; and Ardaran was slain. A 
new dynasty called Sassanid was founded (226). 

This change of dynasty was menacing Armenia, 
where the kings were of the Parthian dynasty. Khos- 
rone I, the Armenian king, marched against the 
usurper and defeated him, according to some histo- 
rians, with the assistance of Alexander Severus. 

Anak, a Parthian prince, being bribed by Ardashir, 
came to Armenia, where one day he assassinated the 
Armenian king, when he was out hunting (261). 



ARMENIA. 147 

After the tragical death of Khosrone, Ardashir 
invaded Armenia ; tlie princes were defeated ; and 
the Roman emperor refused to help the Armenians, 
his allies, as he was busy in another part of the 
empire. Armenia was reduced to a Persian satrapy 
(261-287), with the consent of Probus, the Roman 
emperor. 

The Persian dominion did not last very long. 
Dertad, the son of Khosrone, saved by an Armenian 
prince from the general slaughter ordered by Arda- 
shir, of the royal family, was sent by Pome to Ar- 
menia to take possession of his inheritance; and the 
Persians were defeated. 

IV. Christianity as the National Religion 
of the Armenians. 

It was during the reign of Dertad that the Arme- 
nians embraced Christianity through the guidance 
and self-denial of St. Gregory the Illuminator (301). 

St. Gregory was born in the year 257. His father 
was Anak the regicide. He was brought up in 
Caesarea under Christian influence, and from early 
manhood his influence was felt. 

When the Armenian king came to Armenia he 
ordered St. Gregory to give presents to the goddess. 
St. Gregory refused to do so ; he suffered a painful ex- 
perience, and afterwards he was cast into the gloomy 
dungeon of Artashad (287). After fourteen years of 
confinement St. Gregory was released ; he quieted the 



148 AEMENIA. 

troubled conscience of the king, who had ordered 
cruel persecution against the Christians; he preached 
Christianity ; the whole nation together with the 
king embraced the new religion (301) ; heathen 
idols were destroyed ; the cathedral of Etehimadjui 
was built ; and St. Gregory proceeded to Caesarea 
where he was consecrated Bishop of Armenia (302). 

St. Gregory was the second illuminator after St. 
Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew, who had been, 
according to the Armenian historian of the fifth 
century, the first preachers of Christianity in Ar- 
menia. There were many Armenians inclined to 
Christianity ; but most of them did not dare to con- 
fess their faith publicly. St. Gregory died in 332. 

Persian revolution and the introduction of Chris- 
tianity were two remarkable events of this epoch, 
which led to considerable results. The Persian 
Sassanid kings were relentless enemies of the Ar- 
menian Arsanid kings ; and Christianity brought 
against the Armenians the enmity of the surrounding 
heathen nations. From this time to the present, 
the history of Armenia has been a record of martyr- 
dom and bloodshed ! 

V. The Golden Age of Armenian Literature. 

The reign of the king, Veransabouh, was remark- 
able especially for the literary activity of the court. 
The king, the Catholicos, St. Sahak and St. Mesrop, 
in perfect harmony, produced excellent works. 



ARMENIA. 149 

St. Mesrop was born in a village of Daron (a 
province in Armenia); he knew the Greek, the 
Syrian and the Persian languages, and was a de- 
voted and earnest preacher. At that time the 
Bible and prayer-book were read in Greek and 
Syriac. The mass of the people did not understand 
either of these languages. St. Mesrop thought of 
translating the holy Bible into the Armenian lan- 
guage ; but the Armenians had laid aside their 
ancient characters as impracticable ; and after many 
difficulties St. Mesrop invented or completed the 
h'st of Armenian characters (406). 

This invention opened a new epoch in the annals 
of the nation. With it began national education 
and literature — two elements, by means of which 
the Armenians were able to preserve their existence 
as a nation. 

St. Sahak and St. Mesrop opened many schools ; 
the most renowned among them was that of Vaghar- 
shabad in which the disciples of St. Sahak and St. 
Mesrop were educated. Among these were Housep 
and Gheoup — two champions of Christianity in the 
Persian persecutions — Zeznig of Goght, Goriun, 
Housep and others. These were called first dis- 
ciples or translators ; and Moses of Khorene, David 
the philosopher, Yeghishe, and many others were 
named second disciples or translators. 

St. Sahak and St. Mesrop, with their disciples, 
translated ecclesiastical books from the Greek and 
Syriac; and the excellent version of the Holy Bible — 



150 A.RMENIA. 

a version which has been called the queen of versions 
by Europeans — took place at this time (411). Zez- 
nig of Goght wrote most eloquently^ in four books, 
against the Persian fire-worshippers, the Greek 
philosophers, and the Marcion heresy ; Goriun 
was the biographer of St, Mesrop; David, the 
philosopher, translated among others, Aristotle ; 
Zeghishe related the heroic struggle of Vartan 
for the Christian faith against the Persians ; and 
Toroastian, Lazarus and Moses of Khorene wrote 
their histories. 

Early in the fourth century many Armenian young 
men went to Greece to study. It was to one of these 
that the Romans erected a statue with the following 
inscription : " Pegina rerum Roma,regi eloquentiae.^' 
These pioneers had their followers. 

St. Sahak and St. Mesrop, choosing forty promis- 
ing young men of their disciples, sent some of them to 
Alexandria, some to Athens and Byzanc to pursue 
their studies and better prepare themselves to spread 
the light of the West in their country. 

When these disciples came back to Armenia their 
teachers were dead (440) ; and Armenia was in great 
distress, as we shall see below. 

We have already made an allusion to the Greco- 
Persian agreement in regard to the partition of Ar- 
menia (390). The Persians appointed for their part of 
Armenia an Armenian tributary king. These kings 
were not very powerful, the last of them being the son 
of Veransabouh (400-421). Ardashir, the name of 



ARMENIA. 151 

the young king, was hated by the Armenian grandees 
for his vices. Despite the advices of Sahak (Catho- 
licos) the king continued to live an infamous life; 
at last the Persian king, availing himself of the 
bitter complaints of the grandees against the king, 
dethroned him (432), and sent, instead, a Persian 
governor to Armenia. 

Armenia was now reduced to a Persian province. 

Persian Dominion (433-640). 

This period was remarkable for the first religious 
war fought in defence of Christianity. To under- 
stand well the cruel persecution of the Persians, it 
is necessary to keep in mind the following facts. 

The alliance of the Armenians was solicited both 
by Greeks and Persians ; and when the Armenians 
embraced Christianity, they were more inclined to 
unite with the Greeks, their co-religionists, than with 
the Persians. Bigoted Zoroastrians began to devise 
some eifective means of rooting out Christianity — 
only the tie which united the two nations. 

The period was favorable for the Persians to carry 
their purpose into effect. First, because they had 
recently defeated the Greeks, who could not therefore 
help the Armenians in their distress. In the second 
place, the Huns had gone forth from their country 
to invade Europe ; and they could not come to the 
assistance of the Armenians, who were usually their 
allies. The two neighboring people — the Virginians 



152 ARMENIA. 

^ and the Albanians — could not be relied upon to 
help the Armenians. 

The Persians began to act. Yazkerd II sent an 
order to Armenia, inviting the Armenian nobles to 
go to the Persian capital as he intended to wage war 
upon the Huns. He did everything to allure them 
to embrace fire-worship; they did not, however, obey 
his order. At this time a Persian prince was sent 
to Armenia to oppress the people, to sow discord in 
the nation, to put heavy taxes upon the Churches 
and to introduce other persecutions ; but all in vain. 
They were steadfast in their faith. 

The first minister of the king, whose name was 
Mihrnerseh, sent a letter to the Armenian notables, 
who were invited to renounce their religion. 

Joseph, the Catholicos, together with Bishops, 
priests and nobles, held a meeting at Artashad, 
where it was resolved to write an answer in defence 
of their religion. The reply was ended with the 
following words : '^ This is our holy creed to which 
we all, young and old, cling with the love of our 
"hearts and for which we are ready to sacrifice even 
our lives.^' 

The Armenians knew that the Persian despot 
was angered at this response, and would try every 
means to execute his fixed purpose ; therefore, they 
held another meeting, and it was decided to send 
a deputy to the Greek emperor, seeking help. The 
Greeks not only refused to help them, but, on 



ARMENIA. 



153 



the contrary, they assured the Persians of their 
neutrality. 

An Albanian deputy coming to Armenia implored 
assistance against the Persians, who had invaded their 
country, destroyed many churches and established 
altars of fire-worship. The Armenians, unassisted as 
they were, still sent a troop. Vartan of Manikos, 
the leader of the troop, defeated the Persians near 
the river Cyrus ; the Albanians who had taken refuge 
in the mountains united with the Armenians ; the 
defile of Albanae was destroyed ; and they made an 
alliance with the Huns to help them (450). 

Some ambitious nobles embraced the Persian creed, 
the most influential among these apostates being 
Yasak, the prince of Sounik. He imprisoned all 
those who resisted his efforts and destroyed many 
churches. 

When Vartan came back from Caucasus, Yasak 
retired to his province. In the spring, Mihrnerseh, 
the Persian general, marched with a vast army 
against the Armenians ; and he dispatched a troop 
to Caucasus to defend the defile against the Huns. 

A feeling of desperate courage filled the souls of 
the Armenians who flocked from different parts of 
the country to Avarair to defend Christianity. The 
Catholicos, with many Bishops and Priests, visited the 
camp, speaking encouraging words to the soldiers. 
After a pathetic and effecting sermon delivered by 
a pious and learned Priest, St. Gherout, Yartan 
addressed the army; holy communion was celebrated 



154 ARMENIA. 

in the camp, and the whole army knelt in prayer to 
God. 

The Persians pitched their camp against the 
Armenians ; the signal for fighting was given ; both 
sides fought furiously ; and for many hours the 
victory was in the balance. At last Vartan, the 
great champion of Christianity, was slain. The 
Armenians hearing of the death of their general, 
still fought with desperate courage. At night-fall 
they took refuge in fortresses and mountains, con- 
tinuing the fight. From their hiding places they 
attacked the Persians, losing 1036 persons in the 
battle ; and the Persians suffered a great loss. The 
Huns, provoked by the Armenians, invaded the 
Persian empire in the year 451. 

The King, hearing of these reverses, sent a Persian 
prince to Armenia to proclaim liberty of conscience 
and to establish peace. Yasak was sentenced to 
imprisonment. 

This was the first battle fought for the liberty of 
conscience ; but alas ! it was not the last. 

The Persians had not given up their purpose of 
destroying Christianity in Armenia. They changed 
their modus operandi. Apostatasy from Christianity 
was encouraged by offering special inducements to 
men of influence among the Armenians ; and severe 
punishments were inflicted upon many innocent, but 
earnest Christian persons. By and by a spirit of 
discontentment and indignation manifested itself in 
the nation. At last Vahan, the nephew of Yartan 



ARMENIA. 155 

of Manikon, persuaded many princes to fight against 
the Persians, who were encroaching on their rights. 
Vahan was a brave, fearless, patriotic prince, brought 
up under the influence of his Christian mother. 

The union of Armenians for the defence of Chris- 
tianity was made known to the Persians. Apostate 
princes ran away for their lives ; the Persian Satrap 
hastened to Aterbadagan, thence he marched against 
the Armenians, who defeated the enemy at Agory 
(481) ; and they defeated a stiil greater army at ISTer- 
sehabad. Several Persian generals were sent by the 
king one after another to Armenia to put an end to 
this rebellion, but each one failed in his efforts to 
crush Vahan ; and at length, Vagharch, the brother 
of Beroz, sent an ambassador, whose name was 
Nighor, to know what the insurgents wanted, and 
satisfy them. We will not stop to relate the for- 
malities during the time of making peace. The 
three conditions proposed by Vahan were as fol- 
lows : 

(1). To give liberty of conscience. 

(2). Not to encourage the wicked and apostates 
by giving them honor and rank. 

(3). Not to condemn any person simply because 
he is accused ; to hear both sides and then to release 
or condemn the accused one. 

These conditions received the approval of the king, 
who signed the treaty of Nanarssak (484). 

After some years Vahan was appointed by the 
king as governor of Armenia (485-510). 



156 ARMENIA. 

Garat, the successor of Vagharch, renewed the 
persecutions while Vahan was still living. He, in 
his old age, took arms, marched against the Persians, 
cleared his fatherland from those who had come to 
instruct the Armenians in fire-worship, and destroyed 
their altars. Garat, hearing that the Greek emperor 
had declared war against him and had already in- 
vaded Mesopotamia, marched to meet the enemy. 
Vahan died (510) and the Armenians mourned their 
beloved and brave prince. 

It takes much time to describe the valiant resist- 
ance of Armenians against their persecutors. Ar- 
menians suffered great loss during the Greco-Persian 
wars, because Armenia, on account of their location, 
was the battle-field of the two nations. These 
troubles continued until the downfall of the Persian 
kingdom by the Arabs (640). 

Arabian Dominion of Armenia (649-885). 

All tribes of the Arabian peninsula were fused 
into one nation in the religious and political agitation 
of the seventh century. They began to conjure 
other peoples. Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Persia were 
subdued. No sooner had the Armenians submitted 
to the Arabs, than the Greeks invaded their country 
and the Armenians came under Greek power. Arabs 
invaded Armenia again ; plundered, destroyed, set 
fire to many villages, and carried off numerous 
prisoners. Neither Greeks nor Arabs protected 



AEMENIA. 157 

Armenians, who were left to their fate. What 
could they do ? They were not strong enough to 
resist the combination of these powers. 

After many vicissitudes, the Armenians remained 
under Arabian power. Arabian Caliphs sent gover- 
nors to impose taxes ; these governors oppressed the 
people ; and now and then Armenian princes attacked 
Arabs. To put an end to these agitations in the 
nation, Gashus, one of the governors, burned the 
flower of the nobility in the Church of Naghitcheran, 
whom he had gathered by fraud, as if to communi- 
cate to them an order of the Caliph (719). 

After the overthrow of the Omnizod dynasty, 
Baghdad was the capital of the new dynasty, Ahacid, 
notwithstanding the fact that at this time the Arabian 
empire was at the culminating point of its power. 
Some of the Armenian princes attempted to free them- 
selves from the Arabs. Two Persian princes, together 
with Armenian princes, revolted twice; but they did 
not succeed. The Caliph sent to Armenia a new 
governor, Abousset, who taking by fraud the prince 
Pagarod of the Pagratied family, sent him in chains 
to the Caliph. The inhabitants of SavSsouu enraged 
by this event, attacked the governor, killed him and 
dispersed his soldiers (849). The Caliph sent another 
governor with the charge of punishing severely the 
agitators. Baugha, the governor, plundered and 
destroyed villages and towns, and committed the 
most atrocious acts. He put in chains many notables 
and sent them to Baghdad, where the alternative of 



168 AEMENIA. 

the sword or Islam was offered them. Many died 
in dungeons for Christ^s sake. 

Kingdom of Pagratidae (885-1045). 

From the fact that the Armenian princes, for two 
centuries, revolted against the Arabian empire, we 
may fairly infer that there was, in spite of crushing 
reverses, a moral power in the nation ; a power, 
which under favorable circumstances, could secure 
an independent political life. 

In the 9th century the Arabian empire grew 
weak in consequence of intestine struggles. Pagratid 
princes, availing themselves of this state of affairs, 
founded a kingdom. There was another fact favor- 
able to the establishment of the new kingdom. 
Armenian princes, such as Morig, Leon and Vasil, 
sat upon the throne of the Byzantine empire. 

The founder of the new kingdom was Ashod, the 
son of Souhad the Confessor. He was a patriotic 
and wise prince, who had won the confidence of the 
Caliph. The coronation took place with great pomp 
in the Cathedral of Any (885). 

The princes of Sounik and Arzrounik, his sons- 
in-law, were the supporters of the new kingdom. 

Vasi], the Greek emperor, sent deputies to con- 
gratulate the king on his coronation, and the king 
established the custom and laws of the former king- 
dom. Agriculture, education and the arts began to 
be in flourishing condition. Villages and towns 
which had been destroyed were soon rebuilt. He 



AEMENIA. 159 

broiiglit the whole country under his power, and the 
two princes who had revolted were subdued quickly. 
When he was sure of the tranquillity of his kingdom, 
he journeyed to the West to pay a visit to the emperor 
at Constantinople, where a cordial reception awaited 
him. The emperor and the king signed a political 
and commercial treaty. On his way home he fell 
ill and died in the Province of Shirak. His death 
was greatly mourned by the nation. 

Although the kingdom had been founded by the 
consent of the Caliph, the rapid increase and grandeur 
of the kingdom did not please the Caliphs. As they 
were especially suspicious of the treaty between the 
Greeks and Armenians, they decided to keep the 
kingdom divided by sowing the seeds of discord in 
the nation. This was not the first time that foreign 
princes tried to destroy the union of the Armenian 
princes. Unfortunately, the spirit of jealousy and 
selfishness had been carefully cultivated among the 
Armenian princes respectively by Romans, Persians 
and Greeks, with the express purpose of weakening 
the king and afterwards of taking possession of the 
land. The Arabs pursued with vigor this same 
policy ; and it was with their assistance that the small 
kingdom of Arzsourick (908) and Gars (968) and 
some principalities were founded. Under such cir- 
cumstances the kings could not be very strong. 

Subud, the son of Ashod I, abandoned by the 
nobles and taken prisoner by a military agent of 
the Caliph, was killed in the year 914. 



160 ARMENIA. 

Some of the Pagratid kings, such as Abos, 
Sunbod II, and the like, were very good and 
able kings. They encouraged agriculture, indus- 
try and learning, and did much for the advance- 
ment of the people. 

Any, the capital of the kingdom, became the most 
famous and flourishing town in the country. 

Horhannes Suhav, the fifth king, was an inactive, 
timid prince. We will not describe his quarrels 
with his brother who came near usurping the kingly 
throne, and with the king of the Virginians, who 
attempted to take him prisoner. 

Daughril Beg, the chief of the Turks, invaded 
the Province of Yasperagan, where the king of the 
District Senekerin was defeated and the Turks ad- 
vanced as far as the country of Hou-Subod. 

This devastating people invaded Persia, sub- 
dued the whole country and re-established the Per- 
sian Kingdom — a new menace to the divided and 
weakened Armenia. 

Hou-Subod took a step which hastened the down- 
fall of the kingdom. The Greek emperor, Vasil II, 
having put down a rebellion in Virginia, marched 
against the Armenian king, who had helped the 
Virginians. The cowardly king immediately sent 
a letter to the emperor in which he promised to 
deliver to him the City of Any, if he would cease 
to disturb him, which concession was a great success 
for the invader, who willingly returned to Constan- 
tinople. 



ARMENIA. 161 

After the death of Hou-Subod great troubles 
began. The Greek emperor demanded the town 
Any, according to the promise of the deceased king. 
At this time, the Armenians were divided into two 
parties. The chief of one party was the regent of 
the State, whom his partisans endeavored to name 
king ; the second party, the chief of which was Bar- 
kis, whom his followers endeavored, also, to name 
king ; but the Armenian general, Vahran, protected 
the right of the lawful heir. These two parties, how- 
ever, united in refusing the unjust demand of the 
emperor. Armies were sent to Armenia; and the 
king of the Albanians, at the instigation of the 
Greeks, invaded parts of Armenia. Notwithstanding 
all these difficulties the Armenians were not subdued. 
For the fourth time an army, 100,000 strong, was 
sent to besiege the Armenian capital ; and Vahran, 
the brave and patriotic general, at the head of 50,000 
soldiers, attacked the Greeks, who, becoming fright- 
ened at this unexpected rebuff, fled from the battle- 
field, leaving many wounded and slain soldiers. 

The victorious general immediately summoned the 
Catholicos and nobles, and holding a meeting with 
the consent of the assembly, Kakig, the nephew of 
the late king, was named King (1042). 

The new king hearing of the treacherous conduct 
of Sarkis, imprisoned him in Any. Afterwards he 
marched against the Turks, who had desolated parts 
of the country. He gained the victory; but the 
tranquillity of the country was of short duration ; 
11 



162 ARMENIA. 

for Constantine, the Greek emperor, provoked by 
Sarkis, whom the king had released again, demanded 
the capital. On the refusal of the demand the em- 
peror sent a large army against Kakig ; and in the 
meanwhile he instigated the Mohammedan prince of 
Devin to push forward his troops. Kakig II, with 
the purpose of ever dividing his force, found the 
means of satisfying his provoked neighbor, and then 
he marched to meet the invading enemy, whom he 
defeated. The Greeks for two years did not repeat 
their conduct. 

The Greek emperor now undertook to execute by 
fraud, what he failed to do by force. He wrote a 
letter to Kakig, assuring him of his friendly feel- 
ings and of his wish to make peace with him, clos- 
ing with an invitation for him to come to Constan- 
tinople for personal consultation. The Armenian 
king at first suspected a fraud and hesitated before 
accepting; but at last, feeling assured of the em- 
peror's sincerity, and taking the oath of Sarkis and 
other princes that they would protect the State in 
case of attack, and disregarding the warning of 
Vahran, the old general, he went to the capital of 
the Byzantine empire. 

At first, the emperor received him with great 
honor ; but after a little while he demanded the 
town, and when the king refused, he was exiled to 
an Island. Sarkis hearing what had happened at 
Constantinople, persuaded the other princes and 
Catholicos to send the forty keys of the capital to 



ARMENIA. 163 

the emperor; and thereupon the king, seeing the 
treacherous conduct of the grandees and well aware 
of the emperor's resolution not to allow him to go 
to Armenia, abdicated his throne. He was sent to 
Cappadocia to live in exile (1045). 

The emperor sent an army to take possession of 
the town, but the inhabitants took arms to defend 
it, and defeated the Greek general ; and when the 
people heard that their beloved king was banished, 
they became discouraged, the traitors carried the 
day, and the Greek general came back and took Any 
without resistance. Thus Armenia was reduced to 
a Grecian Province. 

The Greeks committed great cruelties ; dispersed 
the Armenian soldiers ; persecuted the grandees ; 
decimated the nobility either by sword or poison ; 
and the Catholicos were sent to Constantinople in 
exile. 

The chief of the Turks, learning the miserable 
condition of Armenia, sent an army that phnidered, 
destroyed and burned the towns and villages for 
seven years; and men, women and children were 
slaughtered in the most barbarous manner. 

The Greeks, who were not masters of Armenia, 
regarded for a long time these atrocities with in- 
difference; only once they undertook to drive off 
the enemy, but the Turks defeated the united force 
of Greeks, Armenians and Virginians. It is im- 
possible to describe the massacres and cruelties of 
the Turks at this time. 



164 ARMENIA. 

After the death of Doughril, his successor and 
brother, Alp Asian, destroyed what remained in Ar- 
menia. The rich and populous town of Any was 
taken ; thousands of human beings, without distinc- 
tion of age and sex, were cruelly slaughtered, and 
many corpses were covered under smoking ruins 
(1064). 

At last the Byzantine emperors understood their 
error in policy, but alas ! it was too late ; the exist- 
ence of the Armenian kingdom was necessary to the 
general interests of the empire. Armenia was a 
barrier on the Eastern border of the empire. History 
shows that before the kingdoms of Pagratidae and 
Wasbouragan were founded, the eastern possessions 
of the empire were uninterruptedly attacked by the 
Persians as well as by the Arabs ; but so long as the 
above-mentioned kingdoms existed, the Eastern 
provinces were in peace. 

The heart of the banished king bled every time 
he heard of the misery, the devastation of his father- 
land ; and every day he heard the insults of the 
Greek. One day he slew a Greek bishop who named 
his dog Armen as an insult to Armenians. 

The last unfortunate king of Pagratidae suffered 
a tragical death at the hands of the Greeks in 1079. 

Rupenian Kingdom (1080-1375). 

After the overthrow of the Pagratidae kingdom, 
many Armenians left Armenia for distant countries, 



ARMENIA. 165 

and others took refuge in the mountains of Taurus. 
Here in the wild mountains the pursued Armenians 
worshipped God according to the dictates of their 
conscience, and some of the princes established in- 
dependent possessions. 

Rupen, a relative of the last unfortunate king, 
went to the mountains of Taurus and persuaded the 
Armenians to expel the Greeks and to establish a 
new state. With the assistance of other princes he 
formed a small army and having invaded the country 
a new principality was founded. 

Constantine I, his son, extended his territory, and 
made the fortress Yahga the seat of his estate. He, 
together with other Armenian princes, helped the 
Crusaders, who were without provisions at the gate 
of Antioch (1098). 

Thorns I, was a brave, wise prince ; he extended 
his heritage by adding to his domains Anazarbe and 
Cybistra ; and it was he who punished the Greeks 
who assassinated Kakig I. 

His successor, Leon I, took from the Greeks, 
Manestia ; but, in turn, the emperor John marched 
against him, who w^as taken prisoner with his two 
sons (1136). 

Cilicia was united again with the empire; and 
the Armenians suffered much at the hands of 
the Greeks. Some Latin and Turkish princes at- 
tempted to take possession of Cilicia, and the Greek 
emperor was slain during a terrible fight. Thorus, 
who was in the Greek army, succeeded in escaping, 



166 ARMENIA. 

and having made himself known to the Armenians, 
they were induced to strike for independence ; and 
making a bold invasion, they took by assault the 
fortress of Vahga, the town Anazarbe and other 
places. 

The Greek emperor came to Cilicia, but he was 
defeated. 

Thorus I helped the king of Jerusalem, Badain 
III, against the Sultan of Aleppo. 

The reign of Thorus was marked by a degree of 
prosperity and aggressiveness ; and the sultan and 
emperor were glad to make peace with him. 

The death of Thorus II was mourned by the 
people. Thomas, a Latin prince, the father-in-law 
of the deceased king, was appointed regent of the 
state. Meleh, the brother of Thorus II, uniting 
with Mohammedan princes, invaded Cilicia, banished 
Thomas, and reigned in his stead. The policy of 
this prince was to be on good terms with Moham- 
medans. He disliked Crusaders ; and having been 
slain by his soldiers, he was succeeded by Rupen II, 
his nephew, a prudent and peaceful prince. 

The state was at the height of its power during 
the reign of Leon II, who was the younger brother 
of Rupen. He was patriotic, brave and an able 
prince ; he extended his dominions, communicated 
with the West, and encouraged commerce, navigation 
and agriculture. Order and security were established 
within his country. During his reign many schools 
and convents were endowed. 



AEMENIA. 167 

The surrounding Mohammedan princes began to 
fear this progressive ruler. First the Sultan of 
Iconium and afterward the Sultan of Aleppo and 
Damascus marched against him, but he defeated 
them all. To defend his country against foreign 
attacks, he built many fortresses on the frontier of 
his country and garrisoned them. 

At this time, Frederick Barbarossa, the emperor 
of Germany, was a leader of a new Crusade against 
the Sultan of Egypt. He reached Iconium, where 
Leon II sent him provisions and assistance. Un- 
fortunately, the emperor was drowned in the river 
of Calycadmus. His son and successor sent Leon a 
crown in recognition of the services rendered to his 
father. The ceremony of coronation was celebrated 
on Christmas day (1198) in the Cathedral of Tarse, 
in presence of a multitude of people. Many kings 
and princes sent ambassadors to honor Leon II at 
his coronation. Even the Greek emperor, Alexe, 
sent him a fine crown, the political meaning of 
which was that he acknowledged the right of the 
Armenians to possess Cilicia. The king made Sis 
the capital of his kingdom, and he coined money 
with his name stamped on it. 

The Pope of Rome frequently made overtures 
with the Armenians looking to the establishment 
of their religious principles, but their efforts were 
of no avail. The course of history proves how 
fortunate it was that the papal approaches were 
repelled. 



168 ARMENIA. 

LeoD married the sister of Cyprus^ king of the 
Lousigrion family. 

Antioch's inheritance question gave rise to wars 
which lasted twelve years ; but at last the king 
succeeded in defending the right of the lawful heir. 
He suddenly took arras and defeated the Saltan of 
Aleppo, who, at the instigation of the Crusaders, 
threatened Cilicia. 

Leon II, only once was defeated by the Sultan of 
Iconium under the following circumstances. 

He was ill, therefore he was unable to lead the 
army in person. He charged his generals to stand 
on the defence, but the generals encouraged by their 
success acted on the offensive, and they were defeated. 
Although the king was sick he hastened at the head 
of his army to invade and desolate the Sultan's 
country ; but both the Sultan and the king soon 
proposed peace, and exchanged their prisoners. 

Leon II, after a glorious reign of thirty-four years, 
died in 1219. He was buried in Sis. 

It was not without difficulty that Tabel, the king's 
only child, was proclaimed queen. She married 
Philip, the son of Antioch's Latin prince, on con- 
dition that he would respect the custom and laws of 
his new country ; but Philip violated his agreement 
and died a prisoner of state. Afterwards the queen, 
in compliance with the national desire, married 
Hetoum, the son of Constantine the Regent. 

Hetoum decided to make peace with the Moham- 
medan princes, who had not only taken possession 



AEMENIA. 



169 



of some part of the Armenian Isauria, but also bad 
expelled the Latin princes from Edesse, Antiocb and 
Tripolis. At this time the Mongols were advancing 
towards Cilicia ; and the Sultan of Iconium met the 
invading enemy, but was defeated. Hetoum, on the 
conh^ary, finding that the Mongols were growing 
stronger and stronger, endeavored to make them his 
allies; and for this purpose he undertook a long 
journey to see the great Khan in his capital and to 
sign a treaty on the basis of mutual help against the 
Mohammedan sultans. 

A Mohammedan prince, availing himself of the 
king's absence, invaded Cilicia and captured several 
villages. Armenians and Mongols marched against 
Melik-Nazar, the Sultan of Aleppo, and took the 
town by assault; but on account of the sudden death 
of the great Khan they could not proceed to take 
Jerusalem ; and the Mongol general went back to 
Tartaristan, where the Armenian king was too w^eak 
to put an end to the difficulties arising out of the 
death of the Khan. At this time an army of the 
Egyptian Sultan invaded Cilicia. The Armenians, 
under the leadership of Leon and Thomas, the sons 
of the king, were defeated. Thomas was slain and 
Leon was taken prisoner. The enemy laid desolate 
the country, destroying many villages, churches, pal- 
aces, and even the kings' tombstones ; and having 
wrought desolation, they went back to Egypt. 

The king, on his return to Cilicia, seeing the deso- 
lation of his country, sent ambassadors to the Sultan 



170 ARMENIA. 

to request the freedom of his son ; peace was made ; 
prisoners were exchanged ; and Aleppo was deliv- 
ered again to the Sultan. 

Hetoum, after one year, left the throne in favor 
of his son Leon, and retired to a convent, where he 
died in 1270. 

The Sultan of Egypt invaded Cilicia again ; the 
Armenians suffered great loss ; and the Sultan, en- 
couraged by his first victory, marched upon Arme- 
nia, but he was defeated. The king also conquered 
the Sultan of Iconium, and marched against the 
Egyptians with his allies, the Tartars. 

Leon was a king who encouraged literary men, 
agriculture, and commerce. He signed commercial 
treaties with the merchants of Genoa and Venice. 
Agog, on the Gulf of Alexandretta, was the most 
prosperous town in the middle ages. 

Hetoum II succeeded his father. At this time 
the Sultan of Egypt possessed Palestine and Syria, 
and wished to subdue Cilicia, the only remaining 
Christian State. The king was not an energetic 
person ; he was born to be a monk rather than a 
king; and because of timidity he thrice abdicated 
his throne. It was during his reign that Moham- 
medan princes marched against the Armenians. 

Unhappily for the Armenians the new Khan of 
Tartary embraced Mohammedanism (1302). The 
Tartars for ninety years were the allies of the Ar- 
menians ; but now they turned their swords against 
their former allies, and together with the Turks and 



AEMENIA. 171 

others^ they invaded Cilicia. The king succeeded 
with great difficulty in expelling the enemy from the 
country. Finding that he could not alone defend his 
kingdom against the Mohammedans, he took a step 
of fatal consequences. He thouglit the time had 
come to satisfy the court of Rome by making some 
changes in the rites of the national church, with the 
hope of finding assistance from the western nations. 
This policy had its partisans in the nation since the 
days of Leon II. 

It was during the reign of Leon IV, the successor 
of Hetoum, that the great assembly of Sis was held, 
when under the influence of the king, certain changes 
in regard to rites were adopted. The people did not 
accept these changes ; internal troubles broke out 
with violence ; the people appealed to the Tartars 
for aid, and Hetoum and the king were slain. 

Oshin, the brother of Leon, and Leon Y, the son 
of Oshin, on account of their frequent negotiations 
with the West, irritated the Mohammedans, who 
knew very well that the Armenian kings endeavored 
to induce the West to send a new Crusade to the 
East. The Sultan of Egypt, Melik-Nazar, having 
overthrown all Christian princes, entered into an 
alliance with Timour-Tash, the general of the Tar- 
tars, and with Araman, the prince of Tarement. 
These three princes one after another invaded Cilicia. 
It is impossible to describe the atrocities committed 
by them. Many young men, seeing the king busy 
with religious questions in a life and death struggle, 



172 aem:^ia. 

formed themselves into bands, and attacked in differ- 
ent places the invaders, who suffered great loss. 
Peace was at last restored. 

The Sultan of Egypt, hearing that the Europeans 
contemplated sending a new Crusade to the East, in- 
vaded Cilicia and did not leave the country until the 
king swore to have no more communication wnth 
the West. He died without a son (1341). 

After the death of Leon V, some prince of the 
house of the Lousigrion family sat on the throne. 
Constantine III and his brother Quidon w^ere slain 
for the fanaticism they showed in religious rites. 
Constantine IV was a clever prince; he endeavored 
to put an end to religious disputes, and to defend 
his kingdom against foreign aggressions. He at one 
time repelled the advances of the powerful Sultan of 
Egypt. He died without leaving an heir to the 
crown (1362), 

After two years of disorder, it was agreed to name 
king Leon of the Lousigrion family, a relative of 
Peter, the king of Cyprus. The Sultan of Egypt 
invaded Cilicia several times, and during the last 
Egyptian invasions the king took refuge in the strong 
fortress of Jaban. The Mamelukes, after ravaging, 
plundering and burning many towns, besieged the 
fortress; and the besieged, after nine months resist- 
ance, surrendered. 

Melik-el-Eshref, the Egyptian conqueror, ordered 
the imprisonment of Leon YI, and utterly over- 
threw the Pupenian kingdom (1375). 



AEMENIA. 173 

When Leon VI, was released by the intervention 
of the Castillis king he went to Spain, France, and 
England exhorting Europeans to re-establish his 
kingdom. He endeavored especially to reconcile 
the French and English kings in the hundred years 
war. His endeavors were all in vain ; the unfortu- 
nate king was disappointed ; and he died in 1393, 
November 27. His tombstone stands in St. Denis 
(Paris). 

Had the Lousigrion kings been less zealous in 
their endeavors to unite the Armenian national 
church with the Roman, which gave rise to violent 
troubles ; and had the kings endeavored to gain the 
love of the people instead of relying upon the deceit- 
ful promise of Popes and through them of Euro- 
peans, a policy which served to increase the hatred 
of Mohammedans against Armenians, probably the 
Armenians would have suffered less in those days 
of misery and desolation. 

After the downfall of the Pagratid kingdom, 
Armenia was the prey of Seljak Turks, and of the 
Mongols, who invaded Armenia and stifled the 
spirit of independence of the Armenians living in 
the North. Armenia remained for ninety years 
under the sway of the Mongols, with whom 
Hetoum, the Armenian king of Cilicia, by far- 
sighted policy, had entered into alliance. When 
the Mongolian empire was divided into different 
kingdoms, Armenia was attached by the surround- 
ing princes, with the exception of the Province of 



174 ARMENIA. 

Soonik^ which was under the rule of the Armenian 
native prince Orpelian. 

At the close of the 14th century Timour, the 
Tartar, devastated Armenia. In our sketch of 
Armenian history we cannot reproduce here the 
atrocious scenes enacted by the Tartar Khan. 

After the death of Tartar Khan, the Persians and 
Turks waged war almost for two centuries with the 
view of taking possession of poor Armenia. It was 
during this epoch of blood and desolation that the 
Persian king, Shah Abhas, after laying w^aste the 
country and burning houses, transported by force 
more than 25,000 Armenian families to Persia near 
Spahan (1605). 

In the beginning of the 18th century, Persia was 
invaded by the Emir of Afghanistan. Some bar- 
barian tribes living in the North, availing them- 
selves of the Persian troubles, began, to attack the 
Armenians. At that time in certain regions of 
Armenia (Arzak, Soonik and Ondy), Armenian prin- 
ces had large domains; their relation to the Persians 
was that of vassals to feudal lords ; these lords were 
called Meliks and their power was hereditary. The 
above-mentioned invaders were driven away with 
success. Besides, some patriots of Soonik, during 
the Persian troubles, invited from Virginia, Davith 
Beg, one of their countrymen, and began to fight 
for their liberty. Davith succeeded in founding an 
independent government (1721-1728). His suc- 
cessor, Makitar, was assassinated by traitors, and 
the Turks put an end to the new power (1729). 



ARMENIA. 175 

A few words of the Armenian Meliks in Kara- 
bagh . 

In the 18th century these Armenian Meliks de- 
cided, after common agreement, to shake oflP the 
Persian yoke, and to be under the patronage of a 
Christian government, provided their privileges and 
rights on the subject were guaranteed. 

With this purpose they began to negotiate with 
the Russian court (1706). Peter the Great promised 
to help them ; a promise which he was not able to 
fulfil on account of his premature death. For the 
second time the Armenian Meliks sent a secret peti- 
tion (1787) to the Russian empress, Catherine II. 
At last the Russians marched against the Persians ; 
and the Armenians helped them greatly. They 
fought side by side with the Russians against the 
common enemy. An Armenian bishop, Nerses, was 
the leader of many Armenians volunteers (1827) ; 
the general at the head of the united forces of 
Russians and Armenians was Madatian, an Ar- 
menian, and the Persians were obliged soon to 
submit. 

By the Russo-Persian treaty a part of Armenia 
was added to Russia, and these Armenians were 
allowed to immigrate unmolested from Persia to 
Russia (1828). 

Many Armenians, leaving their fatherland, immi- 
grated to different countries, such as Turkey, Russia, 
Persia, India, Europe, and the United States of 
America. All these colonies respectively have their 



176 ARMENIA. 

interesting histories ; and they are, generally, ex- 
cept those who live in Turkey, enjoying prosperity. 

Armenians in Turkey. 

The Turkish Sultan, Mahomet II, (fatih) after 
the downfall of the Byzantine empire, appointed 
Hovagain, the bishop of Broussa, as Patriarch of 
Armenians in Turkey (1461). 

After great difficulties they succeeded in having 
adopted a Constitution which regulated their national 
and religious affairs (1S60). The Armenians for 
the first time began to elect and send their deputies 
to the National Assembly at Constantinople. Ques- 
tions of great importance were discussed there ; the 
people were interested; their schools were improved; 
numerous young men were educated in European 
colleges ; and there arose many rich and influential 
merchants, bankers and other prosperous citizens 
among the Armenians. The Turks could not toler- 
ate the growth and the progress of the Armenians. 
They began to do everything in their power to put a 
stop to their march of progress. Christians suffered 
much ; and at last the Russian government, as the 
protector of Christians in Turkey, made war (1877) ; 
the Turks were defeated ; and according to the 16th 
article of Turko-Russian treaty at San Stefano, the 
Sublime Porte promised to carry out reforms de- 
manded by local requirements, and to guarantee the 



ARMENIA. 177 

security of the Armenians against the Kurds and 
Circassians. 

The Armenians offered a memorial ti) the Con- 
gress at Berlin asking redress for their griefs ; the 
61st article of the treaty reads thus : 

" The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out, 
without further delay, the improvements and reforms 
demanded by local requirements in the provinces 
inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their 
security against the Circassians and Kurds. It will 
periodically make known the steps taken to this 
effect to the Powers, who will superintend their ap- 
plication.^' 

We reproduce a few lines from an article written 
by C. B. Norman, special correspondent of the Lon- 
don Times, giving a picture of the desolate condition 
of the Armenians whose security the Sultan under- 
took to guarantee : 

" Desolation reigns throughout Kurdistan (the 
Turkish government is trying to substitute this 
word for historical Armenia) ; villages deserted ; 
towns abandoned ; trade at a standstill ; harvest 
ready for the sickle, but none to gather it in ; hus- 
bands mourning their dishonored wives ; parents 
their murdered children ; and this is not the work 
of a power where policy of selfish aggression no man 
can defend, but the ghastly acts of Turkey's irregu- 
lar soldiers on Turkey's most peaceable inhabitants ; 
acts, the perpetration of which are well known, and 
yet they are allowed to go unpunished." 
12 



178 ARMENIA. 

We will not stop to describe the atrocities perpe- 
trated here and there at different times. At last the 
European powers began to urge the Turkish Sultan 
to fulfil his solemn promises to introduce reforms 
in Armenia. The Turkish Sultau made up his mind 
to get rid of the Armenian questions; and his plan 
was to exterminate the Armenians. His "Majesty 
summoned the chiefs of the Kurds to his capital, 
presented them with decorations, banners, uniforms 
and military titles, sent them back to organize their 
tribes into cavalry regiments, and called Hamidieh, 
to crush the Armenians' growth and spirit. Non- 
Moslems were dismissed from every branch of public 
service, post, telegraph, custom-house, engineering 
and the like. 

The wholesale massacre of Sassoun took place by 
order of the Sultan (1894); villages of the whole 
district were wiped out ; thousands and thousands 
were butchered in a most terrible manner; children 
were frequently held up by the hair and cut in two; 
women with child were ripped open ; women and 
girls collected in churches were violated by the 
brutal soldiers and there murdered ; and young men, 
covered with kerosene oil, were set on fire ! 

What is called the Turkish government is an 
organized band of plunderers ; its rule cannot be 
reformed ; ^^ a government which can countenance 
and cover the perpetration of such outrages is a dis- 
grace in the first place to Mahomet, the prophet 
whom it })rofesses to follow; it is a disgrace to civil- 



ARMENIA. 179 

ization at large; and it is a curse to mankind " (W. 
E. Gladstone). 

The Turkish report that the Armenians had 
revolted is utterly false. The Sultan wanted an 
excuse to exterminate them ; perhaps two or three 
patriotic young men were unduly active, but " the 
revolutionary movement " was a pretext for the Sul- 
tan to carry out his plans of extermination ; and 
the fine hand of Russia was seen in the whole 
affair. Russia wanted Armenia and not Arme- 
nians. 

Zeiioun. 

An Armenian community lives in the mountain 
regions of Cilicia. Ten villages formed a sort of 
confederation, the centre of which were Zeitoun and 
Hajir. They were governed by four Armenian 
native princes. 

The Turkish government, unable to subdue these 
hardy mountaineers, were satisfied with an annual 
tribute as a sign of submission. 

We enumerate the following events with their 
dates. 

(1). The Mohammedan fanatics of Marash burned 
the English Consul, his wife with child and his chil- 
dren in their home. 

The people of Zeitoun, enraged at this atrocity, 
attacked Marash, which they took ; they revenged 
the death of the dead ; and after remaining there for 
one year, delivered the government to Osmar Pasha, 



180 . ARMENIA. 

a native of Marasb, and then went back to their 
dwellings (1857). 

(2). Khourchid Pasha, encouraged by the Mo- 
hammedan fanatics, marched at the head of irregu- 
lar soldiers against the victorious Armenians in their 
city; who, however, wishing to spare him the fatigue 
of going up to Zeitoun, met him at the plain and 
defeated him (1859). 

(3). Aziz Pasha, with the view of revenging the 
defeats of '57-59, invaded Zeitoun with 44,000 
soldiers ; but he was defeated and fled to Marash 
(1862). While the Turkish government was mak- 
ing preparation to exterminate Zeitoun, with the 
surrounding villages, the Armenians sent a deputy 
to Paris to implore the protection of Napoleon III. 
Peace was made, with conditions, in favor of the 
citizens of Zeitoun. 

(4). The four princes of Zeitoun were banished 
to Constantinople by the Turkish government ; and 
for the first time the Turks establish there a govern- 
ment. The people suffered much, and after one year 
the exiles, deprived of their rights, were sent back. 

(5). The Turks continued their rule of oppression 
(1866-1878); the mountaineers wished to shake off 
the Turkish yoke; and they did so in' the following 
way : 

The Kainiakan, Davard Niezi, killed his Arme- 
nian servant ; the Armenians attacked the govern- 
ment house, but the Kaimakan had already fled. 
Kanil Pasha, the governor of Aleppo, hearing of the 



ARMENIA. 181 

troubles at Zeitoun, marched against the rebels, but 
he was defeated. 

(6). A committee of investigation went to Zeitoun, 
as if to ameliorate the condition of the people ; but 
a fortress was built on a hill twenty minutes distant 
from Zeitoun (1879-1880); and preparations were 
made to attack the- city. 

(7). The government thrice set fire to Zeitoun 
(1876, 1884, 1887); but the Armenians clung to 
their rocks and did not descend to the plain as the 
government wished them to do. 

(8). Zeitoun was again in trouble in 1890; 50 
prisoners, among whom were two bishops, a priest 
and a teacher, were sent to Aleppo. They suffered 
for five years in a filthy dungeon. 

(9). The inhabitants of Zeitoun, hearing of the 
general slaughter in Armenia, took arms in self- 
defense. The Turkish garrison was besieged, and in 
spite of its favorable position it was taken. Regu- 
lar soldiers in troops were then sent ; they were all 
defeated ; the garrison was burnt down ; and the 
kind and noble treatment of their prisoners by the 
Armenians is worthy of praise. The Sultan sent 
orders to destroy Zeitoun ; but the Turkish armies, 
strong as they were, suffered great loss, and they 
failed to take Zeitoun. 

At last the European powers intervened ; Con- 
suls were sent there ; peace was established ; and 
agreement was reached upon certain conditions. One 
of these was the appointment of a Christian gover- 



182 ARMENIA. 

nor over Zeitoun, to which condition the Sultan 
gave his consent. 

Suddenly his Majesty appointed a Turkish Bey 
as governor of Zeitoun ! Probably the Sultan is 
now looking for a pretext to destroy Zeitoun. His 
merciless agents have already begun to press the 
people for the arrears of taxes. What will the con- 
sequences be? These persecuted people are now 
undergoing the most cruel treatment ; and as they 
are disarmed, according to the Turkish law, they 
have no means of defense. 

They are descendants of the Armenians who have 
more than once helped European Crusaders with 
provisions and troops ; and they fought with them 
against the Mohammedan Sultans. 

Alas, they are now alone in their life and death 
struggle ! Will the Christian world remain silent 
and inactive? 



H 313 85 








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